Bartoli won the Wimbledon Championships singles title, after previously being runner-up in , and was a semifinalist at the French Open. She also won seven singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour. Bartoli was known for her unorthodox style of play, using both hands on her forehand and backhand.
On 30 January , she reached a career-high ranking of world No. Bartoli reached the quarterfinals at each of the four majors. Her win at Wimbledon made her only the sixth player in the Open Era to win the title without losing a set. Bartoli was introduced to tennis by her father, Walter, when she was six years old.
She would practice tennis with him late at night after school on small, icy, unevenly surfaced courts which restricted free movement and influenced her playing style. When weather was sufficiently bad, they would train in an old indoor facility where there was very limited room between baseline and the wall, meaning Bartoli became adept at playing inside the baseline.
He devised original training methods, such as improving hand-eye coordination by using balls of different size and color, or encouraging Marion to stay on her toes by taping tennis balls to the heels of her shoes. He drove hundreds of kilometres to tournaments while she would do her homework in the back of the car. Their daughter was born a year later. Bartoli was known for her unorthodox and intense style of play on the court. She used two hands on both the forehand and the backhand, and was generally classed as an aggressive and hard-hitting player who played primarily from the baseline.
She developed her two-handed style on the advice of her father and longtime coach, Walter Bartoli. He had seen the classic French Open final in which Monica Seles defeated Steffi Graf , and immediately was inspired to teach Seles' technique to his daughter. Bartoli had previously had trouble with her forehand, but it improved significantly when she made the switch to two hands. Her game was based on power and she used her double-fisted strokes to create sharp angles to open up the court and preferred to take the ball very early on groundstrokes.
