Marion Bartoli Points to Roland Garros

With a WTA ranking of #12 and preparing to play a Grand Slam tournament in her own country, Marion Bartoli should feel pressure coming at her from every angle.

At a recent sit down interview, she showed none of what you would expect from a young lady who is entering her tennis prime. What I found in Marion was a well spoken, intelligent athlete who knows her game, knows what it takes to win, and enjoys every moment of the life she leads.

While her results on clay this spring have been average at best, her impressive run in Strasbourg this week will hopeully give her the confidence she needs to move through the draw in Paris, after second-round losses in Charleston, Stuttgart, Madrid and Rome.

Being the daughter of a doctor, and with reports coming out earlier in the year that she possesses an IQ of 175, it was interesting to hear if Marion thought she was a genius and if there was a Nobel Prize in her future. Marion immediately put these braniac rumors to rest. "The IQ test was a long time ago; I was 12 years old and it's a test all kids in France have to take," Marion added. Marion doesn't think the result would duplicate itself today, as she prefers to pass tests on the tennis court these days.

Bartoli feels she needs to keep getting stonger heading into Roland Garros. "I felt good about my play on hardcourts this spring," she said. Clay is a different story as the points are longer and the speed of the courts change with the conditions.  With an improved serve and one of the best returns in women's tennis, Marion feels she has a chance each time she steps out on the court. 

To get he mind off of tennis, Marion loves to paint and listen to music during her down time. "Painting is just something I do, it's different than tennis, but also similar," she added. Her musical taste is mostly American pop. When asked what she listens to, she said she enjoys Jennifer Lopez and Flo Rida, a rapper from Florida. It's only fitting that one of Flo Rida's hits is "Turn Around", because with her play this week, it looks like Marion has turned around her fotunes on clay as we head into the tournament that is most important to her. If she should win, she'll join Yannick Noah as the only other French-born player to win the French Open in the modern tennis era.