The 2013 Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli endured mental abuse and physical illness over the past two years that, she said, left her close to death. Dramatic weight loss fueled distressing speculation about her health and left little promise of a return to anything resembling professional tennis.
Yet somehow Bartoli is back, partly because she fixed a far less sensational problem: her serve.
A shoulder impingement and a torn tendon, most likely caused by her unorthodox service motion, forced Bartoli to retire just weeks after she won Wimbledon. Now Bartoli, 32, has a new, more conventional serve.