Article: Another French Open Upset as Martic Beats Bartoli

On Wednesday, May 30, 2012 a great match was played at the French Open between Marion Bartoli and Petra Martic in round two. The favorite for the win was Marion Bartoli, who is French and the hometown favorite. Petra Martic is from Croatia and went onto the court knowing the crowd would favor her opponent. Although it initially seemed obvious at whom the winner should have been, the crowds were in for a surprise.


Martic secured a win against Bartoli by serving an ace on the second match point. Bartoli in the end lost the match primarily due fourteen double faults served. Bartoli did come back from a break down in the second set for a tie, but she never did manage to overcome Martic in the end. The match concluded with an upset for Bartoli with a final score of 6-2 3-6 6-3.


Bartoli should have won the match for a variety of reasons. First of all, Bartoli is a more experienced player with 11 French Opens under her belt and was a semi-finalist in last year's French Open. Secondly, Bartoli is also a much higher ranked player. Bartoli is currently eighth in single rankings while Martic is fiftieth. In fact, Martic has only ranked as high as forty-seventh. The fact that Martic won this match is a complete shock and obviously something that will certainly give her a boost mentally when she gets ready for her next match. Martic secured a spot in the third round in a match against Spanish 29^th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues.

For round three, Martic will need to proceed with caution. If she wants to win the next match against Garrigues she will need to put the upset against Bartoli into perspective. Martic will need to analyze what she did well and what Bartoli did not do well that such as the double faults that kept Bartoli from the win. Without some reflection on the previous match and taking it with her, the win will mean nothing other than she had a great day.


As the French Open continues, it is certain that there will be more upsets and more surprises on the court if things continue as they have. Hopefully Martic will continue with her success and win in the third round against Garrigues since it is nice sometimes to see the underdog win. There's just something about watching someone win a match when they are not the obvious choice. It makes you want to cheer them on much more than before.