The 23-year-old French number one, who was runner-up to Venus Williams at SW19 last year, was beaten 5-7 6-4 6-0 by Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic in her first match of the year on grass.

Bartoli won a difficult first set against Cetkovska and then began to feel pain from the tendonitis that first flared at Strasbourg on the eve of the French Open last month.

Asked why she did not retire, Bartoli said: "I always try to be fair with everyone and by retiring it becomes like 'why can't you find a solution?' For the crowd it is better to go on in the match and for my opponent she doesn't feel she has beaten me if I pull out."

She now looks certain to withdraw from next week's £300,000 International Women's Open at Eastbourne and admits she may have to miss Wimbledon.

"It's been bothering me since before the French Open," Bartoli said. "I've been having treatment but it's tendinitis, and there is only so much you can do for that. It seems like 2008 doesn't want me to be in great shape. I am always having something, some illness or injury." "Missing a Grand Slam, especially Wimbledon is a huge disappointment," she said.


(source IHT, photo/AP Photo/Simon Dawson via Yahoo Sports)

Bartoli loses in DFS Classic and faces Wimbledon blow