Serena Williams downs Marion Bartoli in final to clinch 38th title – Bank of the West Classic 2011
Sunday the 31st of July 2011 was the final of the Bank of the West Classic 2011, the two players contesting were former world number one, Serena Williams and the current world number 9, Marion Bartoli. They competed
against each other at the Taube Family Tennis Center, Stanford University, California where Williams surged past Bartoli in straight sets 7-5, 6-1.
The two had taken to the courts for the first time in 2003 at the Sony Ericson Miami Masters, where Williams defeated Bartoli 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinal. Fate had crossed their paths again in 2007 at the fourth and final Grand
Slam event of the year. Serena again beat Bartoli in fourth round and was leading the head to head 2-0.
However, the last time they met was four weeks prior to this event. Bartoli’s prayers were answered when she finally defeated Williams in the fourth round on the grass courts of Wimbledon 2011. This was the second time the two
were meeting this year and to everyone’s expectations Williams got her revenge.
During the first set Bartoli was up 4-2, while the American was twice down a break but broke back when Bartoli was serving for the set at 5-4. Williams then reeled off eight straight games to pocket the first set at 7-5.
After the first set Williams said, “She’s playing really well and really aggressively. I just had to bring the level of my game up to her level because she's clearly a really good player."
Although the first set was a close match between the American and the French. In the second, Williams did not give Bartoli a chance as she took a 5-0 lead. Bartoli was only able to win one game on her serve when Williams won the
set at 6-1.
Overall in the match; Serena had aced eleven times and struck two double faults, while her opponent had aced thrice and struck eight double faults! Serena won the match with 20% points more than Bartoli in 1 hour, 22 minutes and
4 seconds.
When all was said and done, Williams said, “ I haven't won a tournament that isn't a Grand Slam in forever, so this is cool, I'm taking every tournament much more seriously now - not that I didn't before, but now even more so.
I definitely want to take this whole swing seriously. Believe it or not, I don't love the grass and I do love playing on hard courts, so this is a good time for me to be playing right now."
Williams, a 13-time Grand Slam champion, battled to claim her first title since Wimbledon 2010. After this win Serena has bagged a total of 38 WTA tour singles titles and is forecasted to move back into the top 80.
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