WIMBLEDON 2013



  • Venue: All England Club, London

  • Date: 24 June - 7 July


Coverage: Live on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC HD Channel, Red Button, BBC Radio 5 live, plus 10 live streams available on the BBC Sport website, tablet, mobile and connected TV.



France's Marion Bartoli swept past Belgian Kirsten Flipkens in little over an hour to reach her second Wimbledon final.


Bartoli, the 15th seed, played brilliantly to win 6-1 6-2 and return to the final six years after she lost out to Venus Williams.


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“I just cannot believe it, I played so well”



Marion Bartoli


She will play Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska or Germany's 23rd seed Sabine Lisicki for the title on Saturday.


Bartoli, 28, has been near the top of the statistics for returning serve throughout the tournament and her flat groundstrokes caused Flipkens problems from the opening moments.


The Belgian 20th seed struggled to find any rhythm and dropped serve immediately, finally getting on the board with a hold after 16 minutes to trail 3-1.


Bartoli was well and truly in command though, and she broke once again with a terrific game that included a winning lob, a pass down the line and a thumping drive volley.


An ace out wide wrapped up the set in just 27 minutes and the Frenchwoman's dream start continued with a stunning lob to break at the start of the second.



Match stats






























































Bartoli Flipkens

Match time: 1 hr 2 mins



5



Aces



0



3



Double faults



1



61%



1st serve %



49%



78%



1st serve win %



44%



59%



2nd serve win %



37%



23



Winners



10



10



Errors



6



5/7



Break points



1/2





When the rampant Bartoli broke once again for 3-0, Flipkens called for the trainer and took a medical timeout for a knee problem.


There was a flicker of hope for the Belgian on the resumption as she got one of the breaks back, but a spectacular return winner and a seventh successful lob put Bartoli 4-1 in front.


With a second Wimbledon final in sight, she held her nerve impressively to put away a smash on match point after just 62 minutes.


"I just cannot believe it, I played so well," Bartoli told BBC Sport.


"I think she was a bit injured. She deserves a lot of credit, but it must be hard to be injured in the semi-final at Wimbledon.


"I saw the ball like a football. I hit it cleanly from the start. To play so well in the semi-final at Wimbledon is an amazing feeling."