10 Things I Learned From Wimbledon 2013
7. Maria Bartoli
If you were asked before Wimbledon to name 10 woman you thought could win it I guarantee you no one would have said Maria Bartoli. Not even the most informed tennis pundits would have guessed the 29 year old French woman would be crowed Wimbledon ladies champion. Even Maria herself would have struggled to believe it when two weeks ago she pulled out of the Eastbourne tennis tournament in the second round.
The draw was very kind to Maria as well as all the shocking upsets of the top seeds it left Marias path to the final a far easier prospect. She only faced one girl ranked higher than her in seeding all the way though the tournament now I know that sounds like Im saying she had it easy of course not but much like Wigan in the FA Cup no one would dare complain if they got to win a Grand Slam playing lower ranked opponents.
Maria was also playing some great tennis to win Wimbledon; her lower ranked opponents couldnt deal with her unique serve or the power and skill of her many double handed shots. She won every match without dropping a single set which only 5 other woman have done in history before her so clearly she was still playing very well no matter how easy the draw might have been to her.
Another record she broke was the fact she had played in the most Grand Slams before winning her first, Maria had played in 47 Grand Slams before capturing the Wimbledon title which is an amazing stat. Its uplifting too to see an athletic who clearly struggled for a long time to try and win a Grand Slam to succeed in fact her only previous Grand Slam final was at Wimbledon where Venus Williams easily dispatched her.
Her father trained her with some of the most crazy Rocky style training games I have ever seen yet it all seems to suit her perfectly and now she and the FFT have finally stopped arguing and have teamed up Maria can surely only go from strength to strength in the womans game having finally got her name marked down in tennis history.