Marion's Still Standing

With her form decreasing drastically after reaching the Stanford final, Marion Bartoli needed a boost of confidence to get back to her winning ways. After a disappointing second round defeat at Flushing Meadow and a rather poor performance during the Asian swing, Marion saw her chances of qualifying for the Season's Ending Championships practically vanished. She was pegged back by Radwasnska's incredible run, as the Pole is now pose to grab the last vacant seat for Istanbul.

Faced with a nearly impossible task, Bartoli needed the Osaka crown to stay in contention. She lived up to the occasion, bringing her A game and cruising through the first rounds. Among her victims, she destroyed Vania King 6-1,6-2, avenging a loss to the American in the last head-to-head a couple of weeks before in Seoul. Actually, the Frenchwoman was in imperious form throughout the week. Her toughest test came in the semifinals, where the recent US Open semifinalist, German Angelique Kerber pushed a second set tiebreak. Marion closed it out to 5 and booked a final date with the US Open champion, Samantha Stosur. Bartoli was once again at her utmost best, dispatching the Australian handily 6-3,6-1. The Osaka crowd adds to an already spectacular year. After the 2010 hiatus, she has two titles under her sleeves this season. Additionally, it keeps her in race for Turkey. Having completed the first part of her mission, she must now win the title in Moscow and count on Lucie Safarova to beat Radwanska in their inaugural clash in the Russian capital.

Even if she doesn't make it to Istanbul, Marion should take time and reflect on an amazing 2011, one of her best seasons of her career. It's great to see Marion finding her mojo back. She possess such an entertaining game with her two-handed groundstrokes and she's such a terrible fighter, that seeing her succeed is just great. Being such an atypical player, she's add colour and diversity to the dull WTA tour. She pours her heart and soul into every match, thus every achievement ought to be lived to the fullest. If she can keep the beat going, she stands a pretty good chance of picking up the missing Grand Slam triumph that would establish her as a genuine greatness.

Marion capped a sensational week with a dominant 6-3,6-1 victory over recent US Open champion, Samantha Stosur, to claim her second title of the season in Osaka.

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