The French are famous for being artsy, fashionable – and not exactly the most friendly people in the world. Marion Bartoli is French – and friendly. Friendly enough to endure a series of interviews, foregoing her lunch with a smile despite surviving on just a cup of coffee.
The first thing that strikes you about the former tennis star is her appearance. A before-and-after collage of the 2013 Wimbledon champion would make anyone do a double-take. Having retired from the circuit soon after her greatest success, Bartoli is now full-time into designing clothes for FILA and jewellery under her own name, following the likes of Anna Kournikova, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams.
“Tennis players are creative, passionate people,” she laughs. “Look at Roger Federer, he is like a ballerina or opera singer on court, so creative. Tennis, at its heart, involves a lot of creativity and since we are good at that, our thinking is creative,” she adds by way of explanation. Bartoli was passionate and creative enough to apply and slog for a formal degree from Central Saint Martins, one of the world’s premier design institutes.
The one thing common to both her avatars, though, is the clarity of thought and purpose. As a player, Bartoli was focussed on playing to her strengths while being aware of weaknesses and not trying to be someone she wasn’t. As a designer she knows her forte lies in sports fashion and admits her time on the tour helped her get a clear idea of how she wanted to go about pursuing her passion post-retirement. “I wanted to use my experience and frustration, from so many years of playing tennis without finding the right fit or cut or design or fabric, to create active-wear clothes for women,” she explains.
On court, Bartoli was one of the few players, men or women, to play double-handed on either side. A huge fan of Monica Seles, Bartoli admits she followed the former Yugoslav world no. 1 in everything, the double-handed shot-making only part of that idol worship. “I started with a one-handed forehand like everybody else but lacked power because of weak wrists. And then I saw Monica Seles playing the final of the Roland Garros on TV, and that became a massive inspiration for me.”
“I loved her playing style and her attitude – the way she was fighting for everything, her competitiveness, her mental focus – I loved it all. I had huge posters of hers all around my bedroom, I was even wearing the same outfits from FILA as hers because she was sponsored by them! Playing double-handed made it easier for me, giving me more power and strength and it felt so much more comfortable that I kept it that way,” she says.
Her visit to India as the brand ambassador for Rendez-vous à Roland-Garros coincides with the big push by the French tennis authorities to draw Indians to the red clay Grand Slam and part of that endeavour is increasing the number of clay courts in the country, beginning with two at the DLTA this week. It is also the first time that French Open trophies are displayed in the country at the DLF Promenade Mall in Delhi. It takes a while to identify Bartoli among the crowd, she has lost so much weight there is no trace of the former athlete.
Her current frail frame may not be perfect for a round of tennis any more but Bartoli has made up for it with strength of mind. “It is completely different now, life is so busy. It is more about mind fitness over body fitness now. Earlier, I needed food to fuel me and perform, now it is about what I manage at that moment to stay alive. If I don’t get time for breakfast, I just have coffee and rush off. It is a different lifestyle, your brain has to function all the time so I don’t fuel myself the same way. Then, I had to play and compete against the best but I have lost a lot of muscle mass. Now I think more of how I can relax at the end of the day after all the stress. I go to the gym and do pilates. If I find time and if I find someone around, I go and play. I do a lot of yoga and meditation to calm down, my fitness is now about how I can take care of myself and avoid burn out,” she says.
That doesn’t mean Bartoli is completely out of sync with tennis. She still plays occasionally on the legends circuit along with Kim Clijsters, Martina Navratilova and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, interacts with youngsters who keep asking questions and advices the WTA authorities when asked. She also commentates for several sports channels across the four Grand Slams and admits it was never this hectic on the tour!
“In terms of travelling and in terms of time, yes now is a lot more hectic. But I love it as much as I did the tour circuit. It's different because now I can switch from fashion to tennis and back and do different things at different times. I love tennis and designing and I need both in my life to feel complete. When I was playing, I used to travel with my painting to relax and get my mind outside the tennis court. Now fashion is my full time job but play tennis to get my mind off fashion. Earlier, I used to paint whenever I had time off from tennis; now I play tennis whenever I have time off from designing,” sums up the 31-year old.
Lack of competition
The interview cannot end without speaking about domination of Serena, whom Bartoli beat in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2011, her most productive year. “As for Serena, obviously the pressure is so high now since every Grand Slam she enters, she can break a record. If it’s not Steffi’s number (22, most Grand Slam singles titles) then it is Margaret Court's number (24 titles) or even equalling Eva Goolagong's number of being in most finals at the Australian Open -- there is a new record every day and she is human at the end of the day, but how superhuman she can be and extraordinary in order to cope with it is, I think, more fascinating than any result she may produce.
“She can still get all those records, just like Federer can, but it will be more difficult for Roger because he has to beat Novak, when there is no Novak he has to beat Andy (Murray), if not him then Rafa (Nadal) on clay, when no Rafa then Stan (Wawrinka). For Serena, there is some sort of competition but comparatively far less,” she says, the last line also perhaps an acknowledgement of the lack of challengers at the top.
