Marion Bartoli wasn’t overawed by playing against the world’s top lady baller in Melbourne and it showed.
The Frenchie reached her first quarterfinal at the Aussie Open, outhitting an out-of-sorts Jelena Jankovic and stunning the top seed 6-1, 6-4 by swatting 34 winners against only 17 for her Serbian foe. She'll face Russian Vera Zvonareva (who defeated Nadia Petrova) for a spot in the final four.
Marion Bartoli wasn’t overawed by playing against the world’s top lady baller in Melbourne and it showed.
The Frenchie reached her first quarterfinal at the Aussie Open, outhitting an out-of-sorts Jelena Jankovic and stunning the top seed 6-1, 6-4 by swatting 34 winners against only 17 for her Serbian foe. She'll face Russian Vera Zvonareva (who defeated Nadia Petrova) for a spot in the final four.
Bart, who famously upset then World No.1 Justine Henin in 2007 to reach her Wimbledon final, knew she had a chance to come out on top in this matchup:
You know, I was really confident because I played really well my last match against [Lucie] Safarova. I knew I could beat Jelena on a good day, it was just a matter of executing it, you know, play the right shot at the right time and doesn't make too much mistake. But I was not overwhelmed by the situation, and I just went for my shot and everything went in today. It was just a great match.
JJ's loss follows the shock, early round exits this week of Venus Williams + Ana Ivanovic from the year's first major.
Great win for Bart – no question – but JJ was clearly off her game here. I suppose the lack of preparation finally caught up with her and she'll likely be losing the keys to the WTA Penthouse as well.
So the big questions now is: WHO REALLY WANTS THIS THING?
Rich Rodriguez writes the tennis blog Down the Line!
