We had to ask ourselves, and Marion Bartoli would have asked the loudest, whether or not we were dreaming. Or was this a parallel universe we had slipped into, as smoothly as Bartoli had slipped through the draw, as inconspicuously as possible, a universe where 28 year olds written off time and time again won Major trophies in draws lit up with the likes of Serena, Sharapova and Lisicki.
It was not a dream. We pinched ourselves. We were still there, on Center Court, sharing Marion’s joy at winning her first Major, her much desired and oft fought for Wimbledon trophy. In 2007 she had been beaten 4 and 1, today she was the victor 1 and 4. Parallels indeed. Back then Venus had assured Marion she would be back one day to win. The years rolled by, the final appearance was never repeated. The likes of Lisicki, Pironkova, Lucic, all fine grass courters, had stood in her way.
This year the dangerous obstacles her side of the draw had been felled before they could bring about her own fall. Azarenka, Sharapova, Lucic all out before the third round. The up and coming Stephens lacked the experience and the bite to see her off in the last eight. Flipkens blinked so much she could not see in the last four. In the final stood Lisicki, dangerous and proven on grass yes, but a Major final Virgin and Bartoli knew only all too well how mercilessly those nerves would come down on Lisicki, as mercilessly as her own double-handed ground-strokes would, hit flat and on the rise, from well inside the court.
Inside the court, and she was as inside the court as she was in the moment, playing the match point by point, is where Bartoli stayed the entire match. Once the nervy opening games were out the way, both players conceding their serves with double faults, not a ball was struck by Bartoli without the sole purpose of moving forward and striking the short balls brought her way by her flat strokes and angles for winners. For Lisicki, already seemingly done in by the occasion, this even greater factor, a hungry and worthy opponent on the other side of the net, was too much. Before Bartoli knew it she was a set up, to the tune of 6-1.
It was a tune that looked like being repeated in the second. A sad tune for Lisicki it seemed, the German tearing up 1-3 down in the second as another double fault made her dreams of a Wimbledon title seem more a nightmare. Bartoli, smelling the fear of her opponent, looking for the nerves to inject the needle and put her to sleep, carried on striking the ball as if all her chances were dependent on how fine and ferocious those flat and angled strikes were; the correct attitude, as well, for they were.
At 5-1, Bartoli served for the Championship. And Lisicki woke up from the nightmare and began to lucid dream, going for her shots and breaking Bartoli. Lisicki continued to control proceedings, fighting off championship points with her serve and forehand and holding serve to force Bartoli to serve for the Wimbledon title a second time.
The French woman did it and she did it with an ace on her third Championship point no less. She fell to her knees before embracing Lisicki at the net, and then came the most explosive movement of the day, the run to the player’s box. She climbed in and hugged her support group, Amelie Mauresmo among them. The biggest hug though was saved for her father, fitting for the day when her biggest performance had been delivered, a day so late in her career, at a time her father was not her coach but very much her Dad.
As Bartoli spoke of how it felt to live your dream and raised the trophy we all wondered what tennis world we were living in. A tennis world of dreams and yet a very real one, too; one were the last woman standing is also the most deserving winner in the draw. One where that woman in none other than Marion Bartoli. A tennis world where you can win your first Major after a record breaking 47 attempts. A weird and wonderful record to hold for a world and wonderful player in the very weird and wonderful world that has come to be Wimbledon.
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