Bartoli shock announcement : I'm quitting the game

Wimbledon reigning champion Marion Bartoli to retire just weeks after taking the title

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/tennis-wimbledon-champion-bartoli-announces-shock-retirement-025740993.html

Good news, I hope Schiavone quits too, so I can watch ladies tennis again.

burn-out. it seems she had enough of the pain and the multiple injuries and now she won a slam the motivation to go through it is not quite there anymore. she might come back after a a long break, you never know.
I think it should be normal for Tennis players to take long breaks and to come back 100% fresh and fit. Other sportsmen take sabbaticals, tennis player should have the right to do it without being too penalised byt the ATP.

Sounds like a snap decision to me. She would be better taking a break as others have suggested. She's not too old just yet and is clearly competitive, so walking away may bring regret in years to come.

It is one of those though that you feel in a year or twos time she could make a comeback.

28 years old, has been playing through chronic injuries for ages and has recently taken a surprise slam win. Am slightly surprised that she hasn't kept going to the end of the season, but can certainly understand why she might feel it isn't worth continuing to play through the grind of the regular tour to get there.

It's a very strange decision to retire now when I feel she has much more to give but I've heard and read quite a bit about Marion and she's been playing since a very young age, had bad injuries and I suppose after a while enough is enough. She's achieved her life goal and it's no surprise at all if the motivation's gone. Good luck to her!!

Small potatoes when compared to Lisicki's injury record though...

Maybe if she lost some weight. For a professional sports person, she seems badly out of shape. Carrying that extra baggage probably put more strain on her body.

I believe she is moving into modelling.

Her Dad told her when she was little: "you're never going to be a scrapper, you'll never be a Schiavone, so you have to be a looker".

Keeping in shape like she did obviously took its toll!

Reckon with a bit of a rest, and her body aching less, she will reverse this decision

Maybe if you've got chronic injuries to your Achilles, shoulder, hip and lower back it's a bit harder to do the necessary exercise to keep in shape.
I, for one, will miss Bartoli and her constant jumping around.

There aren't a whole lot of women players on today's tour who grab my attention and Bartoli certainly isn't amongst them.

However ......... unless someone has done something positively evil, or behaved in a consistently unprofessional manner, I would never want to say good riddance when they decide to leave the sport.

Easy to forget just how dedicated + talented you need to be, and just how much effort you need to put in every day of your playing career, to get a Slam title on your CV.

She says she has realised her dream. Best wishes to her.

Andrea Jaeger is another one who comes to mind. Hope Bartoli can do a comeback like Hingis or Henin in the future.

It seems to be quite common on the WTA. In the past decade alone, we've seen the premature retirement of several top players including Davenport, Capriati, Hingis, Henin, Clijsters, Myskina, Safina, Dementieva - even rising stars yet to hit their prime like Vaidisova and Kournikova. Even the Williams haven't always come close to giving any real commitment to the day-to-day, year-on-year grind of the tour. Which is scary considering what Serena's accomplished and how much more she could have done.

They seem to burn out a lot more - either retiring early or dropping like a stone through the rankings like Wozniacki, Ivanovic or Dokic have. It's hard to see WTA players with the focus and single-minded dedication of the men's top 4. Maybe Sharapova.

It seems to be quite common on the WTA. In the past decade alone, we've seen the premature retirement of several top players including Davenport, Capriati, Hingis, Henin, Clijsters, Myskina, Safina, Dementieva - even rising stars yet to hit their prime like Vaidisova and Kournikova. Even the Williams haven't always come close to giving any real commitment to the day-to-day, year-on-year grind of the tour. Which is scary considering what Serena's accomplished and how much more she could have done.

They seem to burn out a lot more - either retiring early or dropping like a stone through the rankings like Wozniacki, Ivanovic or Dokic have. It's hard to see WTA players with the focus and single-minded dedication of the men's top 4. Maybe Sharapova.

Perhaps the deluge of negativity she had to put up with after her Wimbledon win convinced her that now she'd won one, she really didn't need to do anything else.

Good luck to her.

^ I certainly hope some of the gross sexism aimed at Bartoli didn't have anything to do with her decision to make this unexpected retirement announcement. That the winner of such a prestigious trophy wasn't celebrated but was picked on for her appearance says much about how female sports people are viewed. Some of the comments here make me cringe.

@HE... Recall the famous comments from her compatriot, that too from France, a certain Mr. Simon.

JuliusHMarx wrote:Maybe if you've got chronic injuries to your Achilles, shoulder, hip and lower back it's a bit harder to do the necessary exercise to keep in shape.
I, for one, will miss Bartoli and her constant jumping around.

Maybe if she was a bit lighter on her feet to start with all the lower body injuries might have been reduced or not incurred. Maybe if she was fitter down the years her powers of recovery would have been better, again reducing duration of occurrence of injury. Maybe her career itself could have been lengthened. Anyway, she reached her Everest and I'm sure will enjoy her retirement but I, for one, didn't enjoy watching her play one bit.

I really enjoyed watching Bartoli play. She was so unorthodox, both with her shots and on court mannerisms, that it made compelling viewing. When she hit top form she was capable of destroying any player, as in the first set against Sharapova at the USO last year before bad weather stopped play.

If she's in constant pain like she says she is then you can't blame her. You never know her injuries may clear up when she's away from tennis and she may be back.

lydian wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:Maybe if you've got chronic injuries to your Achilles, shoulder, hip and lower back it's a bit harder to do the necessary exercise to keep in shape.
I, for one, will miss Bartoli and her constant jumping around.

Maybe if she was a bit lighter on her feet to start with all the lower body injuries might have been reduced or not incurred. Maybe if she was fitter down the years her powers of recovery would have been better, again reducing duration of occurrence of injury. Maybe her career itself could have been lengthened. Anyway, she reached her Everest and I'm sure will enjoy her retirement but I, for one, didn't enjoy watching her play one bit.

I dunno where those allegations of being a fat lady are coming from... If she could have been lighter , fitter or whatever else you are suggesting she would have been after so many years of dedicating her life to tennis. do you think she was not training properly and eating foie gras or fries at every breakfast? the truth is she had to deal with her genetics (average physical potential are her words to describe it) and had to overcompensate by extra training which resulted in pain and injury. Life would have have been easier for her if she had the body of serena or sharapova.

Im sorry I dont buy it. I see plenty women in the gym with average genetics, amazing how the ones who then get a personal trainer seem to see their "genetic potential" spike up, as it were. You know, 180lbs becomes 115lbs. No doubt some people have better genetics than others, but that is almost always a cop-out. Andy Murray seemed quite capable of out-hustling his sinewy genetics to somewhat resemble a gym bunny. Even Oprah overcame her thyroid to lose weight at fifty. Genetics are almost always an excuse used by someone not prepaired to put in extra effort because their body doesnt change as quickly.

kingraff

Bartoli has proof that she has perfect genetics for tennis, has trained perfectly and is an ideal weight for a tennis career. Either that or she is a naturally talented tennis genius.

Murray I'm sure only stooped to hitting tennis balls because he is no looker.

Im not the one who claimed she didnt

hawkeye wrote:kingraff

Bartoli has proof that she has perfect genetics for tennis, has trained perfectly and is an ideal weight for a tennis career. Either that or she is a naturally talented tennis genius.

Murray I'm sure only stooped to hitting tennis balls because he is no looker.

It's wrong to judge tennis players on their looks. I'm ashamed.

TSJ - Obviously missed the memo. Its wrong to judge a FEMALE player based on their looks. Andy's fair play you know.

Oh yes, you're absolutely right. Cheers!!