Daddy's girl who did it the difficult way

It was seven years ago that Walter Bartoli, a doctor from a small village in the Haute-Loire region of central France, embarked on what seemed a hopelessly optimistic project: to turn his 16-year-old daughter, Marion, into one of the world's top 20 players. That ambition was realised last year and today the softly spoken world No 19 has the chance to reward her father's faith with an even greater prize as she takes on Venus Williams here in the first Grand Slam final.

Women's tennis is full of players spurred to success ­ or, just as frequently, to despair ­ by fathers determined to take their offspring to the top, including Bartoli's opponent on Centre Court this afternoon. However, there are few stories as remarkable as that of an amply proportioned 22-year-old Frenchwoman who freely admits she has a tooth too sweet for her own good.

While France has produced a procession of world-class players ­ the country has 10 women and 12 men in the current top 100 ­ and has a coaching and development culture that is the envy of many other countries, Bartoli's success is not a result of any high-tech performance programme developed by sports scientists and delivered by coaches steeped in the game. She has reached the top through her own dedication and the support and guidance of her father, who taught himself to coach the game.

Bartoli was introduced to tennis by her father at the age of six. The fact that she now likes to take the ball early from inside the baseline is a legacy of the days when she played on a particularly small court in her home village, where there was only one metre between the baseline and a wall. "I played thousands and thousands of balls like that," she said. "I think it helps."

Walter Bartoli always had faith in his daughter. "He used to set goals for me," she said. "If I reached them I would get a sweet, which was good motivation. Maybe that's why I still like eating sweets too much."

Bartoli had decent results as a junior but in 2000 her career was at a crossroads. Although she beat Svetlana Kuznetsova ­ now the world No 5 ­ in the under-16 final of the prestigious Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, the money men of tennis showed little interest. Bartoli did not have an agent, a sponsor or even a kit manufacturer behind her. Only the financial support of her grandfather was keeping her going.

Bartoli père, believing his daughter had what it would take to reach the top, decided that the only option was to give up his job as a doctor and work with his daughter full-time.

A prodigious note-maker, he set about learning how to coach his daughter. He built his own machine to lob balls at her to enable her to train on her own and also taught her to play a double-handed forehand from an early age after seeing Monica Seles use the stroke in a French Open final.

"I'll look after my daughter to make sure she's always happy," he said. "If she doesn't want to carry on there will be on question of me forcing her to do so. But as long as she wants to carry on we'll do everything we can to get her to the top."

The Bartolis have worked entirely outside the mainstream of French tennis. She won the US Open junior title in 2001, but her career stalled the following year and after one defeat in Florence she wept bitterly and told her father: "I'm giving up. This is too difficult."

Walter, however, persuaded her not to give up and steady progress followed. She won her first senior tournaments last year, in Auckland, Tokyo and Quebec, and showed her liking for grass by reaching the semi-finals in Birmingham and Eastbourne last month. After beating Justine Henin in yesterday's semi-finals, Bartoli talked glowingly about her father's devotion. "He's a very good doctor and a very good tennis coach and a very good father," she said.

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