Wimbledon’s Marion Bartoli fans take to Twitter top express weight loss concern

June 21, 2016

Bartoli has lost over 3 stone (42lbs) and now weighs 7.5 stone (105lbs)
Fans of French tennis star have expressed concern about her tiny frame
Many on Twitter have said the retired pro’s slender frame looks ‘unhealthy’
Bartoli says she loves her new body, attained via a strictly controlled diet

Jo Tweedy For Mailonline

Published:
04:54 EST, 21 June 2016

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Updated:
08:22 EST, 21 June 2016

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One-time Wimbledon tennis champion Marion Bartoli’s dramatic weight loss has prompted fans to share their concern over her slender frame on Twitter.

The retired French tennis star has cut a waif-like figure in recent months, shedding more than 3 stone (42lbs) in weight in three years, and living on a strictly controlled diet free from sugar, dairy, gluten and salt.

Fans of the characterful 31-year-old, who was famously branded ‘not a looker’ by veteran BBC tennis sports host John Inverdale, have suggested that her new regime has left her looking ‘gaunt’ and ‘ill’.

Unrecognisable: Marion Bartoli has shed five stone (70lbs) since her playing days and despite saying she’s happy with her new physique, fans of the French tennis star say they’re worried by her slender physique

Bartoli after her Wimbledon victory against Sabine Lisicki in 2013

Fears: Fans on Twitter have been expressing their concern over Bartoli’s slender frame in recent months

Despite Bartoli’s protestations that’s she’s well, fans have been taking to social media to suggest she no longer looks healthy.

She told The Times: ‘I never get sick. I think I look OK and I’m in good health. It’s not like I’m trying to lose weight.’

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After an appearance at the French Open at Roland Garros last month, Twitter user @fandromesyndrome wrote: ‘Is it just me or does Bartoli look really thin?’

Elsewhere, others have been questioning whether the Frenchwoman’s family should intervene with her extreme weight loss with @OnMatchPoint responding to an image of her at Roland Garros saying: ‘Does no one in her family see this?’

The star, pictured promoting her new Love Fila collection in New York last week now weighs 48 kilos

Bartoli pictured on court last week in East Hampton, New York ahead of Wimbledon next week, where she’ll be on the BBC commentary team

Bartoli, who says she’s single told the Times that she one day hopes to settle down and have a husband and children

?@DatGoneIt77 added: ‘Shocking….Exactly, why hasn’t Dr Walter Bartoli intervened yet?’

There are also plenty of comments from French tennis fans, who’ve watched their idol shrink in form since her victory at Wimbledon in 2013.

During her playing days, Bartoli was heavier, something which drew criticism from trolls on social media and landed presenter BBC Inverdale in hot water after his comments on her appearance.

Shock: Many fans have said they have been taken aback by Bartoli’s dramatic transformation

The tennis star, who has studied art at St Martin’s College in London has shed a dramatic amount of weight. She says she ‘loves’ her new body and finds her five-times-a-week sessions at the gym ‘relaxing’

Defining moment: Bartoli returning to Wimbledon’s Centre court in 2014, a year after her famous victory

Built for power: Bartoli says her love of art means she’s sketching all day and doesn’t need her body to be as powerful as it was in her playing days

While commentating on Marion’s straight-sets victory over Sabine Lisicki, he said on Radio 5 Live: ‘I wonder if her dad did say to her, “Listen, you’re never going to be a looker.

You’re never going to be somebody like a Sharapova, you’re never going to be somebody with long legs, so you have to compensate for that.”’

Bartoli has a place on the BBC Wimbledon commentary team when the SW19 tournament starts next week and has been busy making appearances at the fanpark in France during Euro 2016.

Slim: The 31-year-old star says that she finds her trips to the gym a way of escaping a busy jet-setting life that sees her travelling the globe to commentate on tennis

Bartoli’s Instagram account also pays testament to her five-times-a-week gym habit which supplements a diet of steamed vegetables, protein shakes and soya milk.

She says she no longer needs a body for power, telling YOU magazine: ‘I built the body I needed to win Wimbledon. I was where I wanted to be. I shaped it to become a champion – my body was about power.’

‘Now I’m sitting sketching all day rather than squat-lifting 200kg, so I’m not eating the same kind of food. When I played I fuelled my body – I used to eat more carbohydrates and drink sugary drinks on the court. Now I eat vegetables, salads, grains and protein shakes to give me energy for the gym.’

Marion also revealed that her friend Serena Williams told her she wishes Bartoli had been so slender during her playing days.

‘We were talking recently and Serena said, “I wish you weighed what you do now back then [in 2011, when Marion beat Serena at Wimbledon] because I would’ve beaten you!” When you’re facing a Serena Williams serve at 200kph you had better be able to hold your ground. There’s no way I could play against her now.’