By Mikhil Bhat/Doha

The year was 1992 and it was the French Open final. The baseline play of Monica Seles, who eventually won the title, and Steffi Graf mesmerised everyone at Court Philippe Chatrier.

Six-hundred kilometres away in a sleepy town of Retounac, Walter Bartoli was not only mesmerised by the match but he had also struck upon the solution to improve his seven-year-old daughter, Marion’s forehand.

Marion Bartoli has been playing a double-handed backhand and forehand ever since. Bartoli even bid good-bye to her chances of playing at London Olympics last year because she only wanted to play the Fed Cup with her father as coach. In short, Walter designed the way Bartoli plays, so to say.

Yesterday, Bartoli played her first match since she and her father parted ways on the coaching front.

“I felt maybe at this stage of my career, when I have so much experience, I could maybe try a little bit more my way or differently,” the world number 11 said yesterday after her 7-6 (5) 6-3 win over Italy’s Francesca Schiavone in the Qatar Total Open at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex here. Walter has not been with his daughter during games since Paris Indoors two weeks ago.

“But I still love my dad. I still call him right after the match. He was so happy with my performance.  I was really happy, too,” she said.

“It’s a tough decision. I won’t say hard. I think tough. But, you know, at some point throughout my career I have been going through some tough decisions. That’s what helped me to be where I am right now,” she added.

Bartoli’s first match without her father in her box didn’t exactly start on a positive note for her. Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, who is the oldest player in the $2.3 million tournament, had raced to a 5-1 lead over the ninth seed before the latter fought back hard enough to force a tie-breaker which she won 7-5.

She wrapped up the next set 6-3 to set up a second-round clash with 2004 and 2007 runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova, who had beaten qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the first round on Monday. This was Bartoli’s only second win over the world number 54 in seven matches, with the last one coming in Dubai in 2009.

Meanwhile, except for 12th seed Maria Kirilenko, who retired from her first round match against Ekaterina Bychkova of Russia, it was a regulation day for all the other seeds.

Lucky loser Daria Gavrilova of Russia would certainly be questioning that tag after being drawn against second seed Serena Williams, who took less than an hour to make it to the third round.

Third seed Maria Sharapova downed France’s Caroline Grace in an hour and 16 minutes for a scoreline of 6-3 6-2 to reach the third round.

Eleventh seed Nadia Petrova, who is one of two contenders for Diamond Ball Trophy along with Sharapova, got past Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic 6-1 6-2.

In the other matches of the day, Tunisian wild card Ons Jabeur got off to a promising start before Romania’s Sorana Cirstea got into her elements to get through to the second round. Jabeur managed to snatch the first set of the game 6-2 but was completely outpowered by the world number 31 thereon. Cirstea took the second set 6-3 before blanking the tournament’s youngest player in the third.

Eighth seed pair of Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands was beaten by former world number one pair of Samantha Stosur and Lisa Raymond 6-4 6-2.

Today, world number one and top seed Victoria Azarenka will kick off her title defence campaign against Romina Oprandi of Switzerland.

 

 

TODAY’S ORDER OF PLAY

CENTRE COURT start 3:30 pm

Radwanska (POL) vs [Q] Rodionova (AUS)

[1] V Azarenka (BLR) vs R Oprandi (SUI)

[10] C Wozniacki (DEN) vs S Cirstea (ROU)

Not Before 8:00 PM

S Kuznetsova (RUS) vs [9] M Bartoli (FRA)

COURT 1 start 3:30 pm

T Babos (HUN) vs [6] S Errani (ITA)

S Halep (ROU) vs [13] A Ivanovic (SRB)

[7] P Kvitova (CZE) vs E Makarova (RUS)

[8] S Stosur (AUS) vs M Niculescu (ROU)

COURT 2 start 3:30 pm

S Hsieh (TPE) vs [11] N Petrova (RUS)

Not Before 5:00 PM

[12] M Kirilenko (RUS) or [Q] E Bychkova (RUS) vs D Hantuchova (SVK)

M Jugic-Salkic (BIH) / S Klemenschits (AUT) vs [WC] A Naydenova (BUL) / F Schiavone (ITA)

D Hantuchova (SVK) / A Medina Garrigues (ESP) vs [5] S Hsieh (TPE) / L Huber (USA)

COURT 3 start 3:30 pm

C Mchale (USA) vs [17] L Safarova (CZE)

[15] R Vinci (ITA) vs U Radwanska (POL)

[7] A Hlavackova (CZE) / L Safarova (CZE) vs O Govortsova (BLR) / A Klepac (SLO)

[1] S Errani (ITA) / R Vinci (ITA) vs [Alt] L Kichenok (UKR) / N Kichenok (UKR) or K Barrois (GER) / E Daniilidou (GRE)

COURT 4 start 3:30 pm

[16] S Stephens (USA) vs K Zakopalova (CZE)

D Jurak (CRO) / K Marosi (HUN) vs I Buryachok (UKR) / V Solovyeva (RUS)

[Alt] J Jegiolka (POL) / V Kapshay (UKR) or S Aoyama (JPN) / M Moulton-Levy (USA) vs [3] R Kops-Jones (USA) / A Spears (USA)

T Paszek (AUT) / K Zakopalova (CZE) vs [2] N Petrova (RUS) / K Srebotnik (SLO)