Marion Bartoli vs Anabel Medina Garrigues – Match Preview: Tournament of Championships 2011
The two players that will clash against other on indoor hard courts of Bali International Convention Centre in Bali, Indonesia are Top seeded French Marion Bartoli and Espanola Anabel Medina Garrigues.
The two contenders have met eight times prior to this event and are well aware of each other’s style and technique. In the head-to-head series French Bartoli takes the lead with six matches to Espanola Garrigues’ two.
The first time they clashed against each other was in 2004 at Auckland and Bartoli had emerged victorious in straight sets. The second they met in the same year was on hard courts of Bali and once more Bartoli had taken the edge
over her adversary.
They met once more in 2006 and 2009 at Beijing and Eastbourne respectively; Bartoli had done it again in both the events. However, 2010 saw a change of events, they once again got into a faceoff with each other but this time it
was on clay courts of Madrid and Garrigues finally defeated Bartoli in straight sets. Garrigues was able to repeat the feat again in 2011 but once more it was on clay courts of Rome.
After that, the two met each other for the last time on classic clay courts of Strasbourg. It was a clash in the semi final and Bartoli bagged the game in straight sets making it look like a piece of pie. The Frenchwoman not only
leads the head-to-head series but take the statistical edge on hard courts.
The first time Bartoli made her appearance was in 2004 and she saw an early round exit at the hands of Tathiana Garbin. However, she never lost hope and again qualified for this event after a gap of two years. In 2006, Bartoli
was on a roll as she ousted t he best of the best and qualified till the final but her winning streak was cut short by Svetlana Kuznetsova. The Frenchwoman had made her last appearance in 2009 and once again she became a runner up as she lost to Aravane Rezai
in the clash of the title.
Nevertheless, Bartoli has shown remarkable improvement with results as a semi finalist and quarterfinalist. Moreover, she bagged one WTA tournament this year in Osaka, Japan and added another title to her haul by flabbergasting
Samantha Stosur in the final. Bartoli is currently ranked as world number 9 which is also her career high ranking and is in supreme form.
On the contrary, Garrigues made her debut appearance in 2004 but also saw an early round exit. During her second appearance she managed to pass the first round but lost the second to Sara Errani. Her third appearance which was
in 2009 also didn’t prove lucky and instead she lost both her rounds. Well, maybe she can strike a pot of gold in her fourth appearance, although, that is extremely unlucky given that she is a clay specialist.
The Espanola has had a seesaw year and could barely pass through the fourth round on hard surfaces. However on clay, the Spaniard has bagged two WTA titles at Estoril and Palermo.
A majority of tennis critics are of the view that Bartoli will easily surmount the Espanola in straight sets.
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