Aravane Rezai of France wears a Balinese traditional outfit as she holds her trophy. (Photo: Firdia Lisnawati, AP)
Nusa Dua, Bali. One French star enjoyed a successful end to the season, while another saw her year end in pain.
Aravane Rezai emerged victorious in the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions final on Sunday after Marion Bartoli withdrew with a quad strain. Rezai, who won the first set 7-5, pocketed $200,000 and her second title of the season.
“It’s a big surprise and I’m very sorry for [Bartoli]. I hope it’s not a big injury,” Rezai, 22, said after the all-France final. “But in tennis there is a winner and a loser, and I’m happy to be the winner today.”
Rezai’s winner’s check nearly doubled her season earnings, having won $333,076 going into the tournament at the Bali International Convention Center. Her other victory came in Strasbourg, France.
“This victory means so much to me. This only proves that I can be a much better player on the tour,” she said.
Bartoli broke Rezai’s serve in the fifth game to go up 3-2 and had the first set in sight when she led 5-3. Rezai held serve for 5-4, though, and broke back in the next game to level the set.
Rezai led 6-5 and 15-40 when Bartoli suddenly stopped chasing a ball and limped off the court, asking for treatment. After being tended to by the tournament doctor for 15 minutes, she returned to the court and served up a double-fault, handing Rezai the set.
Soon after, Bartoli told the referee she could not continue and withdrew from the final. She said after the match she started to feel the pain in the middle of the first set and it kept getting worse.
“I started to feel some pain all over my quad. And if I put some weight on my leg, it got worse and in the end I couldn’t continue. I really tried as hard as possible,” said Bartoli, who earned $100,000 as runner-up. “The last thing you want to do is injure yourself in the last match of the season, but what can I do?”
Bartoli’s withdrawal because of injury was her seventh this season, the last coming in October in the Japan Women’s Open.
“I’ve always been having some small injuries, even when I was a junior. My body is strong in a way, but not that strong. Sometimes I’m breaking down because I try so hard on the court but my body can’t follow up,” she said.
Bartoli, who also lost in the 2006 final to Svetlana Kuznetsova, said she has no plans to return to the court for at least three weeks. She closed out her season with titles in Monterrey, Mexico, and Stanford, California, and runner-up finishes in Brisbane and Bali. Tennis
Related Articles:
Free day: Wearing Balinese traditional outfits, female tennis players competing in the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions 2009 in Nusa Dua, Bali, release pigeons before the opening of the tournament Monday. The players are (from left) Kimiko Date Krumm (Japan), Vera Dushevina (Russia), Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (Spain), Aravane Rezai (French), Agnes Szavay (Hungary), Magdalena Rybarikova (Slovakia), Sabine Lisicki (Germany) and Melinda Czink (Hungary). JP/Ricky Yudhistira
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.