Nick picks a fight with Bartoli!

When she was playing did her work ethic include carrying an extra 30 kilos ??? What a moron of a person she is.

Maybe she is pissed that she weighs more than Kyrgios and Monfils combined.

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Russeljones

Talk Tennis Guru
She isn't completely wrong, even if I think he choice of words is really poor. Bartoli, while not playing entertaining tennis to my eyes hardly can be faulted for her work ethic. Well I'd mildly disagree with Monfils as I don't think he was talented enough to win a slam bar an excellent draw. As for Kyrgios, unless he get similarly lucky with his draws, he's going nowhere with that return game and that's been known for years (nice article by Tennis Abstract).

At least she's consistent with herself: when interviewed a few days ago about the future of French tennis, she said that she visited the French National Training Centre and couldn't believe what she was seeing. The kids weren't putting in anywhere near the work ethic required to play on the pro tour. When the coaches start raising their voice to get the kids working, the parents came in to say that they're not allowed to talk to their children like that. The coaches get reprimanded and nothing gets done. Basically and according to her, the most talented kids France has to offer, all gathered in one of the best training centre the country has to offer don't put in enough work to become pros. They don't want to practice, they don't want to listen, and she doesn't know why that is. The CNE (National Training Centre) is basically a summer camp. Talented kids with huge egos, lack of work ethic that are comforted in their behaviour by a toxic entourage who defend them against anything and would rather criticize coaches than their kids' behaviour. It's not much unlike what Henri Leconte said about French youngsters either.

Even earlier during Roland-Garros after Caroline Garcia's loss, Marion also said about her, albeit way more politely that she'll struggle going further in slams if she didn't make additions to her team with people who have experience with going deep and winning slams, who know how to deal with such emotions and the mental side of the game. It's something I've long agreed with, especially when I listen to her father coaching her during matches and talking about nothing but technical points. Never anything about mentality or tactics, only technique. Well Caroline has mostly good technique on every stroke, so I don't think that's what she needs... Bartoli can relate to that because she also mostly was raised as a tennis player by her father, away from the French Tennis Federation; however, she did say she requested Mauresmo's help quite a lot and discussed a lot with her the fortnight she won Wimbledon.

Personally I'd be even harsher and say I'm legitimately impressed that Garcia managed to get inside the top 10 for that long of a time given her mental toughness and tactical ability. What she's done during the end of the previous season to play the Tour Finals was to show consistent mental toughness I never knew she could display, especially with the niggling injuries she's had at the end of the season; even if I still found her tactics to be somewhat lacking.
Nice post.
 
Johansson also also has a major, but
anyone that prefers watching him to Gael or Nick must have had a lobotomy.
Honestly, I don't like watching Nick his game just doesn't interest me. I actually find it annoying at times the lack of shape on the ball just like Tomic . Maybe the half heartedly effort too idk. I would watch Johansson over him
more times than not.
 

Legend of Borg

G.O.A.T.
nick could verbally destroy her in regards to her weight issues and looking like the Michelin man (woman) but i don't think he's willing to stoop to such low levels

balanced response to an extremely vitriolic comment
 

Rippy

Hall of Fame
Seems like Bartoli is the one who picked a fight.

She criticised Kyrgios. Kyrgios responded.

How is this getting blamed on Kyrgios?
 
Depends on what point in her life you are looking at. Too heavy, skin and bones - I'll let other people decide what her problem was. I'm not picking on her, but she'd be wiser to pick her words more carefully. A glass house is still a glass house.
Agree, and she is well educated and smart. She should be able to articulate her thoughts better than this.
 

vex

Legend
Regardless of the speaker, she just spoke the truth. Dudes a waste of talent. Coulda been something.
 

cc0509

Talk Tennis Guru
Depends on what point in her life you are looking at. Too heavy, skin and bones - I'll let other people decide what her problem was. I'm not picking on her, but she'd be wiser to pick her words more carefully. A glass house is still a glass house.


What are you talking about with this "glass house" BS? Bartoli won Wimbledon and she's always been a hard worker thus she knows of what she speaks here. She said Kyrgios and Monfils aren't hard workers and are wasting their natural talent. What's the big ***** deal? She's right.
 

Gary Duane

G.O.A.T.
What are you talking about with this "glass house" BS? Bartoli won Wimbledon and she's always been a hard worker thus she knows of what she speaks here. She said Kyrgios and Monfils aren't hard workers and are wasting their natural talent. What's the big ***** deal? She's right.
You have a nice day too. :D
 

cc0509

Talk Tennis Guru
You have a nice day too. :D

Ha ha. I was just wondering, what is all of this "glass house" stuff from you? Bartoli said something about Kyrgios and Monfils and she was right on. She won Wimbledon and always worked hard so if she can't comment about it, who can?
 

Gary Duane

G.O.A.T.
Ha ha. I was just wondering, what is all of this "glass house" stuff from you? Bartoli said something about Kyrgios and Monfils and she was right on. She won Wimbledon and always worked hard so if she can't comment about it, who can?
We are never going to agree.

I'm not talking about her work ethic.
 
What are you talking about with this "glass house" BS? Bartoli won Wimbledon and she's always been a hard worker thus she knows of what she speaks here. She said Kyrgios and Monfils aren't hard workers and are wasting their natural talent. What's the big ***** deal? She's right.

Well she isn't really, nobody can accuse Monfils of not working hard-the problem is like Alex Higgins in Snooker did his entire career he plays to the gallery too much. Lets be serious in this era the only guys to win slams outside of the big four have aside from Stan who has a ridiculous weapon only managed one each despite all their hard work & there aren't many of them either, so as far as silverware that people care about/remember he likely would only have one anyway even if he cut the clowning.
 

Boom-Boom

Legend
Ha ha. I was just wondering, what is all of this "glass house" stuff from you? Bartoli said something about Kyrgios and Monfils and she was right on. She won Wimbledon and always worked hard so if she can't comment about it, who can?

no she was totally wrong - just desperate about getting attention after she made a fuss about her future come back « in the top 10 » just to abort it
 
She has no right to say that about Kyrgios.

It’s his business how he approaches the game.
Comments about him being childish are none of her business.

Could you imagine the reaction if Nick said the following - “Marion was annoying to watch and had a very ugly game and service action”.

If Nick were to attack her about her weight, would it be the same as her calling him out about him being childish ?? They are both about behaviour.

So it is OK for you to criticise her, but not for her to criticise another?
Why is this?
 

Candide

Hall of Fame
Well he sure showed her. Letting his tennis do the talking
As usual the Kyrgiot delivered on his awesome potential right on cue. Bartoli only speaks the truth. If people like to watch Kyrgios for his entrancing "entertainment value" then fair enough but that puts him in the realm of a Santoro sideshow not the tennis legend that he seems to believe he is. I do love the old, "you don't know what we've been through" card tying himself to Monfils though. He ain't no tough kid from the hood but went to a very fancy private school in the dullest, most middle class city in the world - Canberra. Bartoli said he had no work ethic and implied that he wasn't a serious sportsman. Pretty hard to argue with that given his pathetic capitulation against Nishikori. Real talk homey.

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Radford College Canberra - Huzzah!
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Gary Duane

G.O.A.T.
Ha ha. I was just wondering, what is all of this "glass house" stuff from you? Bartoli said something about Kyrgios and Monfils and she was right on. She won Wimbledon and always worked hard so if she can't comment about it, who can?
Glass house: if your life is so exemplary in all ways that there is nothing to criticize, people are more likely to listen to advice.

If your "hard work" leads to neurotic behavior, maybe it's time to question your values and goals.

There is more to life than winning. Monfils to me has always seemed like a very happy, well-adjusted man, so maybe with more hard work and discipline he might have had a slam or two - or not.

And Nick, in another 30 or 40 years, may be a very happy man with a great life, even if he does not win big, or he may end up with bad results in all areas, not just tennis.

But I would not presume to give advice to either Monfils or Nick about how to lead their lives. There are many ways this lady could have made relevant comments without it getting disparaging.

And I don't think I'm alone in saying this.

Now, should she get credit for working very hard and winning a slam?

Yes.

But does winning a slam make it wise to make the kind of comments she made?

No.
 

reaper

Legend
Glass house: if your life is so exemplary in all ways that there is nothing to criticize, people are more likely to listen to advice.

If your "hard work" leads to neurotic behavior, maybe it's time to question your values and goals.

There is more to life than winning. Monfils to me has always seemed like a very happy, well-adjusted man, so maybe with more hard work and discipline he might have had a slam or two - or not.

And Nick, in another 30 or 40 years, may be a very happy man with a great life, even if he does not win big, or he may end up with bad results in all areas, not just tennis.

But I would not presume to give advice to either Monfils or Nick about how to lead their lives. There are many ways this lady could have made relevant comments without it getting disparaging.

And I don't think I'm alone in saying this.

Now, should she get credit for working very hard and winning a slam?

Yes.

But does winning a slam make it wise to make the kind of comments she made?

No.

I think this kind of frank discussion is healthy. Bartoli has obviously had plenty of issues herself, perhaps caused by being excessively driven, perhaps due to other factors. She had a shot at him, he fired back, no harm done and a bit of entertainment for the rest of us. It may well be that she's bewildered by their lack of dedication, simply can't understand or relate to it, and consequently makes some disparaging comments about it. I'm not sure about Monfils but she's clearly right about Kyrgios in that he seems mind blowingly immature. In terms of his tennis career he really appears to be at a crossroads. If the reports are to be believed he's actually trained for the AO and Wimbledon this year and got nothing to show for it. Interesting to see if he keeps training, or just decides given the results that there's no point practicing.
 

gplracer

Hall of Fame
Nick has all the skills but he shakes his head when he hits a bad shot and then he bails in high pressure situations.
 

Candide

Hall of Fame
Nick has all the skills but he shakes his head when he hits a bad shot and then he bails in high pressure situations.
Spot on. His third set was a disgrace. Tons of ultra-low percentage miracle shot attempts (some of which came off) but overall as clear a raising of the white flag as you could get short of Tomic's backwards racquet. Bartoli had all sorts of problems as some above have been kind enough to speculate on but I would suggest that her intensity, focus and tenacity eclipses Kyrgios' by a country mile.

I had a feeling that Nishikori's doggedness and speed would give him fits but I still thought it'd be a closer match than this. In answer to the "entertainment" factor maybe he should just concentrate on improving his tweener game and doing trick shots and polishing up barbs with which to bully umpires, lines-people and ball kids. If there's ever been a more charmless troglodyte to grace the tennis court I'm struggling to remember them (even Connors could be charming and get the crowd on his side) - this is why I'll always root for the other guy as long as this clown is in the circus.

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cc0509

Talk Tennis Guru
Glass house: if your life is so exemplary in all ways that there is nothing to criticize, people are more likely to listen to advice.

If your "hard work" leads to neurotic behavior, maybe it's time to question your values and goals.

There is more to life than winning. Monfils to me has always seemed like a very happy, well-adjusted man, so maybe with more hard work and discipline he might have had a slam or two - or not.

And Nick, in another 30 or 40 years, may be a very happy man with a great life, even if he does not win big, or he may end up with bad results in all areas, not just tennis.

But I would not presume to give advice to either Monfils or Nick about how to lead their lives. There are many ways this lady could have made relevant comments without it getting disparaging.

And I don't think I'm alone in saying this.

Now, should she get credit for working very hard and winning a slam?

Yes.

But does winning a slam make it wise to make the kind of comments she made?

No.

She was giving her opinion about their loser attitudes relative to their talent and she was absolutely right IMO. Tennis is a competition, not a quilting convention. When a fan watches the sport of tennis he or she expects talented players to go out there and try their best and yes, to win. Why watch professional tennis otherwise? To follow a bunch of players who lose all the time? I can see many on this forum do that, but I don't have the time or inclination to do that.

IMO Bartoli was making constructive criticism and honest criticism and she hit the nail on the head as Kyrgios proved for the billionth time in his loss vs Nishikori today. Also, she knows more about the subject than we do as she sees these players close up and she's a champion herself so she knows of what she speaks. Kyrgios is a talented guy but he's a lazy *** who puts zero effort into 80% of his matches. That's not what I want to watch. If others want to watch that, great. I love to watch his matches vs Federer because he puts in 100% effort and comes up inches short each time. That's what I want to see.
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Bartoli was right LMAO.

So he blatantly tanked in the first set? Childish.

This forum really is filled with some hateful people commenting on Bartoli's weight which wasn't even a factor.
 

tlm

G.O.A.T.
Truth hurts. 'Childish' was actually a nice way to say that Monfils clowned his career away and now Kyrgios is doing the same. I'm with Bartoli in this fight 100%. Nick needs to grow up for his own sake.

Yep you guys can hate on her all you want but she stated the facts plain and simple.
 
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