:00:00. > :00:17.It is time now for HARDtalk. Welcome to HARDtalk with me, Tim Franks. I
:00:18. > :00:20.am in Paris at the headquarters of tennis in France. My guest is a
:00:21. > :00:25.Marion Bartoli, the French tennis player and Wimbledon champion. Last
:00:26. > :00:30.year after achieving the highest accolade in her sport, the Wimbledon
:00:31. > :00:35.title, she announced that she was walking away, retiring. Can she
:00:36. > :00:38.really never imagined competing again? What does that say about the
:00:39. > :01:01.health of her sport? Marion Bartoli, welcome to HARDtalk.
:01:02. > :01:10.I just sat in my introduction that you have retired. Have you? Yes. I
:01:11. > :01:14.did. I retired from tennis. I am not a retirement person. No chance of a
:01:15. > :01:26.cosmic a lot of people were surprised. You
:01:27. > :01:31.had just won the world 's greatest tournament. For those of our
:01:32. > :01:42.audience who do not understand what Wimbledon means, give me a sense of
:01:43. > :01:47.what it did mean. I was eight years old in a very small village in
:01:48. > :01:52.France. I was training with my father, he is a doctor. I dreamt
:01:53. > :02:02.about winning Wimbledon since I was eight. My number one wish was
:02:03. > :02:11.writing and then winding winning Wimbledon. Of course, I had to
:02:12. > :02:16.practise extremely late. I had to go to school so I was probably
:02:17. > :02:20.finishing my day around 11pm. There was a time now is going on court to
:02:21. > :02:35.practise tennis so I was offered late every single day. Finishing my
:02:36. > :02:42.practice at 1:30am. You really have to have something inside you that is
:02:43. > :02:45.stronger than anything. Even when you hear a million times that it
:02:46. > :02:54.will not happen and you will never get it, one day, maybe you will live
:02:55. > :02:59.it. But then six weeks later you said that your body had given up? I
:03:00. > :03:05.had been a professional player since I was 16. When I started 2013, I
:03:06. > :03:13.felt that it was my best year of tennis. I think that because I felt
:03:14. > :03:22.that way, and my mind wanted to win so badly that somehow I put
:03:23. > :03:29.everything together. Sometimes your mind is the best anti-inflammatory.
:03:30. > :03:36.Even if my back was on fire or my shoulders were hurting I was able to
:03:37. > :03:42.lock all those negative thoughts and all the pain and just go and just
:03:43. > :03:48.pursue my dream. It was almost my destiny to do it. But then, when I
:03:49. > :03:54.finally won, it was like a castle of cards. Everything went down. My
:03:55. > :04:01.whole body was begging me to stop. You have to understand that when I
:04:02. > :04:06.play my first time in Toronto I was calling my dad every morning before
:04:07. > :04:11.going on court. Zayne, dad, I am so much in pain and I cannot hold it
:04:12. > :04:16.any more. I was crying every single morning because I had so much pain.
:04:17. > :04:28.What was he saying? He said listen to your heart no matter what it is.
:04:29. > :04:32.At the time, everybody was saying that she will change her mind and
:04:33. > :04:37.this is what people do. They say they have had enough or need time
:04:38. > :04:46.away. They need to recoup with their body and mind. One player said that
:04:47. > :04:51.she will regret this decision when Wimbledon comes around again. But
:04:52. > :04:58.your mind is that? Since that day I have never had one day not even one
:04:59. > :05:02.second when I regret my decision. You don't think when Wimbledon comes
:05:03. > :05:11.around this year, I'd love to be there. No. I will be so proud to see
:05:12. > :05:21.my name as the 2013 champion. I want... I close chapter one as a
:05:22. > :05:27.tennis player. And this is the best, happy, Cinderella, Disney
:05:28. > :05:33.movie ever. It is just perfect. But now I will write a new one and a new
:05:34. > :05:38.chapter of my life. I am not a retired person, I hate that word. I
:05:39. > :05:46.am just stopping being Marion Bartoli, the professional tennis
:05:47. > :05:52.player. It was your life for over 20 years. You practised even as a young
:05:53. > :05:59.kid until past midnight. Whether times when you were doing that where
:06:00. > :06:08.you just wasted what you are doing? No. I was on a mission. It was not
:06:09. > :06:14.only for me, I was not just doing it for me. I had a mission to take my
:06:15. > :06:24.dad and my parents and my whole family outside the place where I was
:06:25. > :06:32.in France. I just felt somehow I need to make that happen. Of course
:06:33. > :06:37.it was a lot easier for me to go to school. School was easier than
:06:38. > :06:46.tennis. I was not gifted, physically in tennis. When you see a loss of
:06:47. > :06:50.players having their parents being professional athletes, it is
:06:51. > :06:54.different in my case. I had to work even harder to become one of the
:06:55. > :07:00.greatest. I felt that I needed to do that for my father. I needed to stop
:07:01. > :07:06.seeing him working 18 hours a day and being sad. Some people listening
:07:07. > :07:10.to that might think that it is not the job of an 11 -year-old to take
:07:11. > :07:19.the burden of their families expectations. And that perhaps you
:07:20. > :07:26.were being driven by your parents. My parents never told me that. It
:07:27. > :07:32.was really what I was feeling. Now I am not a professional tennis player,
:07:33. > :07:38.I want to work for charities. I want to give to others. There must have
:07:39. > :07:41.been times when you are practising late at night as a young child where
:07:42. > :07:49.you are saying to your father, your coach, enough. I have had enough.
:07:50. > :07:56.Let's stop. We don't need to practise until 1am. Feeling is not
:07:57. > :08:00.acceptable for me. When I was at school, 19 out of 20 was not good
:08:01. > :08:11.enough. I had to have 20 out of 20. Nine Serbs in the 50 centimetre
:08:12. > :08:28.square box, nine Serbs out that is not raising a challenge. And
:08:29. > :08:30.yet your moment of triumph came shortly after you decided that your
:08:31. > :08:42.father would no longer be your coach. You did it with a former
:08:43. > :08:48.player. What was the change? What made that mean that you could then
:08:49. > :08:54.take the Wimbledon title? It has always been clear that my father
:08:55. > :09:03.will always remain my hero. At some point, I felt that I needed to take
:09:04. > :09:10.over my tennis and be more involved. To get these extra bit of confidence
:09:11. > :09:13.that are needed. I was in the final or the semi-final or the
:09:14. > :09:23.quarter-final but I was still missing something. I was visiting my
:09:24. > :09:29.confidence. With my new coach, I felt like I could not lose. You said
:09:30. > :09:33.that even as you are winning Wimbledon, you felt, maybe this is
:09:34. > :09:40.my final year. Your body was beginning to hurt. I am wondering
:09:41. > :09:45.how much you blame that on the nature of the tennis calendar. A lot
:09:46. > :09:53.of people say it is just too punishing. There are people who run
:09:54. > :10:00.professional tennis try and cram into many matches. What do you
:10:01. > :10:07.think? There are some pluses and minuses. If you don't put enough
:10:08. > :10:12.tournaments, you do not get the opportunity to enough players. To
:10:13. > :10:18.really perform and be professional players. If you put too much, and of
:10:19. > :10:24.course the top players, because you go so far in every tournament, it
:10:25. > :10:27.becomes too much for your body. Sometimes you cannot do a circuit
:10:28. > :10:33.for ten players, you have to look at the big rich. You and the longest
:10:34. > :10:40.that anybody went before winning a Grand Slam. Whether times when you
:10:41. > :10:53.thought, I need a break. Of course. You bounce back. Of course I am very
:10:54. > :10:58.proud of what I achieved but a also proud of the way I bounced back from
:10:59. > :11:05.defeat, from loss. From depression almost. When I was losing when I
:11:06. > :11:10.thought I should have wind, I could stay for three days inside my hotel
:11:11. > :11:17.room, barely eating or talking to anyone. It was very nasty. If you
:11:18. > :11:32.are in China or Japan or all over the place, you are by yourself. It
:11:33. > :11:38.is you and only due. -- you. When you have a team around you, your
:11:39. > :11:45.friends, if you have a bad day you can go on the bench and your partner
:11:46. > :11:53.can take on some of the job. But in tennis it is just you. But then when
:11:54. > :12:00.you achieve, the reward that you get... It is very hard for me to
:12:01. > :12:06.find something in normal life that is that kind of feeling. I can see
:12:07. > :12:12.it in your face and he'll what you say, that pride. Understandable
:12:13. > :12:18.pride. I don't want to sound too miserable at do you ever think
:12:19. > :12:25.yourself, what if I had not wind that Wimbledon? After all those
:12:26. > :12:32.years and asset as a child. After 47 appearances in grand slams. Do you
:12:33. > :12:41.ever think... That is the magic of it. I felt something was happening
:12:42. > :12:48.from somewhere that was giving me something to make it happen. I would
:12:49. > :12:58.have still made a final foray Grand Slam.
:12:59. > :13:09.Now I can say, proudly that I am a grand slam champion. Having asked
:13:10. > :13:17.you about the strains that are on the top women tennis players, ten or
:13:18. > :13:19.11 months of the year, it might seem like an odd question to ask you if
:13:20. > :13:28.you think that actually, women's tennis, hats for the grand slams
:13:29. > :13:38.should go to best of five sets. Please! No! You are rolling your
:13:39. > :13:47.eyes. We already played so many matches over the years. Don't give
:13:48. > :13:53.us five sets! You probably heard Andy Murray say this but let me
:13:54. > :13:57.quote to you. I think the women should play best of five sets. I do
:13:58. > :14:02.not see why they could not do it. Maybe not from the first round. I
:14:03. > :14:07.think that is what the guys tend to complain about, rather than the
:14:08. > :14:14.equal prizemoney it sell. He says it is possible. Maybe just in the later
:14:15. > :14:19.rounds of a championship. But you know that there is grinding of teeth
:14:20. > :14:25.among male players, not because of equal prizemoney but because some
:14:26. > :14:37.women's tennis playing games last 45 minutes. To give me that! Honestly,
:14:38. > :14:42.I can't take this. Women cannot do the same physical... Same physical
:14:43. > :14:56.abilities as men. It is not humanly possible. That it! You cannot ask a
:14:57. > :15:01.woman to play six hours. It used to be said that women could not run the
:15:02. > :15:06.marathon on and then in 1988, the marathon on comes into the Olympics.
:15:07. > :15:12.There are those who argue that the problem about not having a five set
:15:13. > :15:20.match is that, in the words of one sport journalist, it perpetuates the
:15:21. > :15:26.myth of the weaker sex. I am starting to commentate on our and I
:15:27. > :15:31.have seen men's matches that ran an hour and 20 minutes, even in a
:15:32. > :15:37.quarter-final. Don't say to me that some women's matches last 45 minutes
:15:38. > :15:45.and we are almost so lazy. Man I mean, there are so many matches they
:15:46. > :15:50.go for three hours. It is enough for a woman, believe me. And we are
:15:51. > :15:56.ready playing all the time, we put and push our bodies towards the
:15:57. > :16:03.limits. Asking to do even more and to add to set to that, it does not
:16:04. > :16:08.make sense. One side saying, that you think it is already too much and
:16:09. > :16:17.the other saying no, let's put more. You have to be realistic. If you
:16:18. > :16:30.want to put five set just for the one match. On one match, a woman can
:16:31. > :16:36.play one five set match. But if the quality is going to be as good, I
:16:37. > :16:44.doubted. But if you want to make it special, I agree with that. But
:16:45. > :16:49.doing it for seven matches? ! It is not a woman you need but to. You
:16:50. > :16:58.have to have Serena a and Serena beat, Maria a and Maria B. I do not
:16:59. > :17:01.see how woman can play 45 cents in two weeks. I do not see it. Or she
:17:02. > 1:29:38would finish in the hospital. two weeks. I do not see it. Or she
1:29:39 > 1:29:38far do you think the women's game is still tainted by sexism? I mean, if
1:29:39 > 1:29:38you had to deal... I hesitate to raise this, but you had to deal with
1:29:39 > 1:29:38an astonishing crass comment last year, as you were winning Wimbledon,
1:29:39 > 1:29:38he said, the reason you have got such a fighting style on the court
1:29:39 > 1:29:38is, he said, and he later apologised, is because your father
1:29:39 > 1:29:38may have told you that you were not a look at. How did you deal with
1:29:39 > 1:29:38that is make very still a measure of sexism around in tennis? I felt I
1:29:39 > 1:29:38had already answered to the person, did I gym about being a supermodel?
1:29:39 > 1:29:38No. Did a gym about being a grand slam winner, yes. At the end of the
1:29:39 > 1:29:38day, criticism goes with the fame, if I can put it that way. Men will
1:29:39 > 1:29:38be judged on tennis results. A woman, yes, she is going to get some
1:29:39 > 1:29:38comments on how she looks but it is the way in every department. Not
1:29:39 > 1:29:38only in tennis. The same when you get to a job. If a woman goes to an
1:29:39 > 1:29:38interview for a job, she will be more judged at the beginning by the
1:29:39 > 1:29:38recruiter, on the outside, then on her CV. That is the way the world
1:29:39 > 1:29:38goes. Should we change that? Yes, absolutely. But the reason
1:29:39 > 1:29:38difference between knowing what is going on and accepting the rules...
1:29:39 > 1:29:38What do I want to change the rules? Yes, absolutely. Right now I have to
1:29:39 > 1:29:38play by the rules and right now, woman is game to be seen not only on
1:29:39 > 1:29:38tennis results, achievements and abilities, but I do not John
1:29:39 > 1:29:38Riverdale is a supermodel either, just to say that. He talks about the
1:29:39 > 1:29:38need for power and stamina. Were you concerned at all while you were
1:29:39 > 1:29:38playing that some of the people you are playing against might have been
1:29:39 > 1:29:38taking performance enhancing drugs, that they may have been a doping in
1:29:39 > 1:29:38the sport? Absolutely not. Andy Murray, Roger Farah, have not
1:29:39 > 1:29:38levelled at the accusation that they have said there is a need for
1:29:39 > 1:29:38increased testing... I absolutely agree there is a need to increase
1:29:39 > 1:29:38test but I never had the feeling when I lost the match that I lost
1:29:39 > 1:29:38the match because the person I was playing against was taking or had
1:29:39 > 1:29:38taken some performance of drugs, absolutely not. It would make sense,
1:29:39 > 1:29:38given the stamina that you need for tennis, the power, the ability to
1:29:39 > 1:29:38take in oxygen, the power to recover from injury, I mean, all that would
1:29:39 > 1:29:38suggest the sport... I will give you an example. I was still on the anti-
1:29:39 > 1:29:38doping list and programme through the 31st of December. So they came
1:29:39 > 1:29:38to my home even as a retired person in September and October for two
1:29:39 > 1:29:38blood tests. I also heard some people saying, she retired bit cause
1:29:39 > 1:29:38she was doping... They have to understand in September, October,
1:29:39 > 1:29:38November, once a month they came and I gave my blood and it comes out
1:29:39 > 1:29:38negative. I was followed even as a retired player. Throughout the year
1:29:39 > 1:29:38you have 50 or 60 tests. I think that tests have to be increased, I
1:29:39 > 1:29:38think the urine test may not eat enough. If somebody takes something
1:29:39 > 1:29:38so powerful that the test cannot find it, then we need to find a way
1:29:39 > 1:29:38to make sure that when someone goes to a doping test, if he is really
1:29:39 > 1:29:38taking something, he will be caught. That I agree on. But when I played
1:29:39 > 1:29:38the date feel or thought that the player I lost against, I lost
1:29:39 > 1:29:38against her because she was taking something I was not taking, no.
1:29:39 > 1:29:38Francis Davis cup captain, did he get it right when he said it would
1:29:39 > 1:29:38be foolish not to be concerned by these problems, the problem of
1:29:39 > 1:29:38doping is, especially since the game got more physical? I totally agree
1:29:39 > 1:29:38with you. We have to be aware and we have to be very careful in not
1:29:39 > 1:29:38giving up and not saying, because we have only filed a very few cases, it
1:29:39 > 1:29:38is not going to happen. -- found a few cases. The power of the doping
1:29:39 > 1:29:38control, we need to be at the same level as the people who are trying
1:29:39 > 1:29:38to cheat. Meaning, if they go to the best lavatory and took a product
1:29:39 > 1:29:38which is the first class product, we have to be able to match that with a
1:29:39 > 1:29:38first-class doping test. So if they are trying to cheat, they will be
1:29:39 > 1:29:38caught stop it again, I never felt that some players were taking
1:29:39 > 1:29:38products. Just because we did not have the possibility of the right
1:29:39 > 1:29:38test, we let them play. I never had that feeling. Let me finish with
1:29:39 > 1:29:38something perhaps more cheerful than talking about doping. He said that
1:29:39 > 1:29:38you are playing a little bit at the moment. I think you are going to be
1:29:39 > 1:29:38playing in an exhibition match at Wimbledon this coming summer. When
1:29:39 > 1:29:38you do step on a tennis court now, do you still have that hunger to
1:29:39 > 1:29:38win? Oh, yes. Sometimes it is ridiculous. A played with Patrick,
1:29:39 > 1:29:38who is Serena 's coach, he has also commentated in France, he was there
1:29:39 > 1:29:38at the study and open and we played on Saturday. We did a ten point feel
1:29:39 > 1:29:38crosscourt. And when I won, it was like, it yes! So, of course, I have
1:29:39 > 1:29:38to win this deal but when I am playing, you will hear me laugh from
1:29:39 > 1:29:38100 metres away, I just have so much fun. It is so cool to be able to hit
1:29:39 > 1:29:38the tennis ball without any pressure. But I cannot play without
1:29:39 > 1:29:38it, absolutely. But it is just a small part. Marion Bartoli, thank
1:29:39 > 1:29:38you very much for being on HARDtalk. Thank you, it was my pleasure.
1:29:39 > 1:29:38We will continue to see very disruptive weather as we have
1:29:39 > 1:29:38through the course of Wednesday. A deep vigorous area of low pressure
1:29:39 > 1:29:38bringing stormy conditions to much of the country, in particular the
1:29:39 > 1:29:38south and west. The area of low pressure will be sitting across
1:29:39 > 1:29:38Ireland with very strong wind wrapping around it with outbreaks of
1:29:39 > 1:29:39heavy