Lining up alongside the photographers poised to take a snap of the new ASB Classic champion Marion Bartoli was a crooked, middle-aged man with a bright red jersey, clutching a tiny point-and-shoot camera. Like the pros, he was also there to capture the moment.
Walter Bartoli was there to witnesshis daughter win her first WTA Tour title and wiped away the tears moments after Marion completed the trademark run into the coach's box to embrace her father. Unlike a few dads on tour, most notably Richard Williams and Stefano Capriati, Walter Bartoli is a shy man who doesn't profess to know much about the game.
He didn't even know double-handed shots existed when he witnessed Monica Seles claim the 1990 French Open.
"When I started, I played naturally a double-handed backhand but my forehand was one-handed," Marion explained after her 6-2, 6-2 win yesterday. "Because I wasn't strong, my wrist was going under the ball every time. When Seles won the French Open, my dad saw the final on TV and he didn't know a player played double-handed. He didn't know the game. He said, 'she's not playing like you and maybe you should try to do it that way on your forehand too because you are weak'. The next day I took my racquet two-handed and have done it from then on."
It was a good job she did. Her ground strokes, on both the double-handed forehand and backhand, were the difference yesterday as she ran Vera Zvonareva around the court like a dog relentlessly chasing a stick. Time and again she found the corners in a one-sided final.
Bartoli dedicated the win to her father, who said: "Today all the work we have put together paid off."
But it was also a title achieved despite the fact she didn't pick up a racquet seriously until she was 14.
While many of her opponents on the women's tour were training daily from a young age, she practised only twice a week until she was in her teens.
"I really enjoyed going to school. I think my dad helped me today to be a nice person and educated," said Bartoli. "I knew my time [to win a title] would come."
