Bartoli Working with Novotna for Elusive First Major

Marion Bartoli may not play at all like her new coach Hall of Famer Jana Novotna. But Novotna certainly knows what it's like to wait for your first Major title.

By Erik Gudris

(March 10th, 2013) -- It wasn't a surprise that Marion Bartoli made an announcement at the BNP Paribas Open this week that she was working with a new coach. After all, Bartoli and her father, Dr. Walter Bartoli, recently ended their long, successful though at times controversial coaching partnership. But what was a surprise to some was that Bartoli revealed that former Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna would now be Bartoli's new go-to person for tactics and advice and not Amelie Mauresmo as was once thought.

Bartoli made her decision to hire Novotna and Iwona Kuczynska, who will focus on physical training and technique, after Dubai. Though the partnership is very new, Bartoli likes the results so far.

"Jana of course knows tennis very well," Bartoli told AFP. "She knows what it is mentally to be on the court."

Novotna certainly knows about the struggles and triumphs that the mental game brings to the sport. One of the last pure serve and volleyers, the Czech born Novotna emerged on tour in the 1990's following in the wake of Martina Navratilova, who was Czech born but became a U.S. citizen, and then later Hana Mandlikova and Helena Sukova.

Reaching as high as No. 2 in the world, Novotna's own career was punctuated by great heights and great lows - many of them coming at Wimbledon. Novotna is probably best known not for her title run to the 1998 Wimbledon title, but for her now well-known meltdown in the 1993 Wimbledon finals when she blew a 4-1 lead in the final set to Steffi Graf who went on to win. The image of a sobbing Novotna being comforted on court by the Duchess of Kent during the trophy ceremony will remain one of the sport's most memorable moments.

Though their playing styles are vastly different, Bartoli finds herself in a similar position that Novotna did at the end of her own career. After many thought achieving Grand Slam glory would allude her, Novotna at age 29 and nine months became the oldest woman ever to win a Major title in the Open Era. Her Wimbledon win was a popular one even for the Duchess of Kent who was clearly rooting for Novotna in the 1998 finals after having watched the Czech come up short twice for the title the last two years.

Bartoli, now 28, has reached only one Major final at Wimbledon in 2007 and has recently said that the goal of winning her own elusive first Grand Slam title is a huge priority and one reason why she and her father decided to part ways on the tennis court. Back when she was on tour, Novotna herself hired Mandlikova to be her coach in an effort to win Wimbledon -- the only Major title that Mandlikova herself never won. Now that the roles are reversed, many will be watching how Novotna can help Bartoli finally put the pieces together that leads her to that same career defining moment.

If it does happen, tennis fans may find themselves feeling a mixture of relief and joy for the veteran Bartoli the same way that they did 15 years ago when Novotna finally raised the Venus Rosewater dish high in the air. Success often tastes sweetest when you have to wait for it, especially through disappointment. For Bartoli, she is hoping Novotna's experience in tasting bitter defeat and then sweet victory on the sport's biggest stage will propel her to a similar satisfying closing chapter to her own career.