Wimbledon champ Marion Bartoli dazzles at champions ball, brushes off thoughtless remark about looks

So Marion Bartoli beats the odds and somehow becomes the 2013 Women’s Singles Champion at Wimbledon.

She was seeded 15th and while she had been the runner-up to Venus Williams in 2007, most people expected Serena Williams or Maria Sharapova to walk away the winner.

So after this great triumph, what does BBC commentator John Inverdale say as Bartoli hugged her dad, Walter, post-match?

“Do you think Bartoli’s dad told her when she was little: ‘You’re never going to be a looker, you’ll never be a Sharapova, so you have to be scrappy and fight?”

Yes, he really said that.

Of course this was brought up to Bartoli at her post-match press conference.

“It doesn’t matter, honestly,” she said. “I am not blonde, yes. That is a fact. Have I dreamt about having a model contract? No. I’m sorry. But have I dreamed about winning Wimbledon? Absolutely, yes.”

Well said Bartoli!

I doubt Inverdale was invited to the Champions Ball (BBC apologized for his comments) but if he was there, he would have seen a Wimbledon champion who was every bit the looker and who has her place in tennis history.