Catnap sets Marion Bartoli up to get the cream

MARION BARTOLI likes cats. Loves them. Thinks she will be one in her next life. And once you know that, everything makes sense.

MARION BARTOLI likes cats. Loves them. Thinks she will be one in her next life. And once you know that, everything makes sense.

The No15 seed from France slept in the locker room yesterday, for 20 minutes until she stepped out on to Centre Court. It could be the most famous catnap in Wimbledon history and it ought to have backfired.

She behaved, in the opening game of her semi-final, like you do when you have overslept and rushed out without checking if you turned off the oven. As Kirsten Flipkens waited at the baseline to experience her first grand-slam semi-final, Bartoli was still fussing at her chair and had to take off her jumper and fiddle some more. She served, but then realised halfway through her opening service game that her left shoe needed lacing up, and then her right.

She had asked her physio to wake her up in case she overslept, but did not need him. The 2007 Wimbledon runner-up woke before anyone panicked and says she may do the same again when she faces Sabine Lisicki in the final. Unbelievable - unless you think of yourself as a moggy, and then it feels quite rational.

It did not affect her tennis one jot, all that rushing to be ready, and she eased through 6-1 6-2. Often, such one-sided sporting contests are described in terms of a cat toying with a mouse. But this really was a cat in action. Bartoli famously shadow swings between points, even between receiving first and second serves, but once you know her feline proclivities it all becomes clear. She is a cat swiping at a baby bird, she can't help it.

And of course she needs to keep bouncing up and down, if she didn't she might curl up on the grass and fall asleep again. All that activity between points is a quirk she has always had and she was at pains to stress it is in no way designed to befuddle her opponents.

"I've been doing that for ever," she said. "I have some tapes of myself when I was 7 years old or 6 years old, and I was still doing the same. It's just part of me. It's just a great way for me to focus on the next point, focus on what I need to do. Just trying to be ready for what's coming. It's not like I want to annoy my opponent."

Bartoli battered the inexperienced Belgian, who was ranked No175 in the world a year ago and, for the first time at this tournament, looked out of place. Bartoli won the first set with an ace and the first game of the next set with an almost light-hearted lob.

Whatever shot was required, she produced it and Flipkens had no reply, beyond a sliced backhand and a presence at the net that her opponent chose to interpret as a weakness rather than intimidation.

After what she called a difficult year off the court, Bartoli said she deserved her place in the final. She has a volatile relationship with her father and in February dropped him as her coach. Walter Bartoli was not there to see his daughter reach the final, but he will fly over to be on Centre Court supporting for the title decider.

Six years ago she lost the final 6-4, 6-1 to Venus Williams, but there are no parallels with that day, according to the 28-year-old. "I think I'm serving better," she said.

"I think I'm able to hit the ball harder. I'm moving faster. I mean, I do just everything a bit better than what I was doing six years ago. I think if I would play myself now with my game six years ago compared with my game today, I would probably be beating myself quite easily because I'm just doing everything better."

So Bartoli is convinced she would defeat a 22-year-old version of herself, and if it takes a snooze right before the final in order to overcome the challenge posed by Lisicki, then that is exactly what she will do.

The Times