New Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli takes pride in separating herself from the tennis pack and is more convinced than ever that carving her own path is the right way after winning her first Grand Slam title.
The Frenchwoman who is hard to miss on court with her curious training elasticised gadgets and her hyperactive hopping and practise swings in between every point, played the match of her life to win the trophy 6-1, 6-4 over German Sabine Lisicki on Saturday.
“I will always remain the same: very humble, very low-key and easygoing, down to earth,” she said.
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“Just hearing ‘Wimbledon champion,’ that sounds good to me. It had been my dream, I wanted it so badly. I felt the achievement of my career was to win a Grand Slam. I kept dreaming. I kept my head up. I kept working hard, and it just happened.”
“To share this moment with my dad... I was looking at him in the players’ box. He was really cheering me on. He was on his phone for almost the whole match. I don’t know what was happening, but he was really relaxed.
“It’s always been a part of my personality to be different. I think being just like the other one is kind of boring. I actually love that part of my game, you know, being able to have something different.
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“At the end of the day, when the spectators were looking at 10 matches they will remember this girl that was doing something different, playing inside the court or whatever.”
“I can focus and be really as strong as wood, you know. You cannot see what I’m going through. I think it’s coming from my childhood, from where I practiced when I was younger.
“I needed to handle going to school, normally practicing at 10 pm, finishing at midnight, going back to school the next day. Those kind of hard moments make me extremely strong when I’m on the tennis court.”