How Dart revived career with help of Wimbledon champion

Britain's Harriet Dart knows people doubted whether she would ever win a WTA title, but says the belief of her coach Marion Bartoli helped achieve the best week of her career. Dart reacts to her first WTA title after 'incredible week' In the hour following her first WTA title win, Britain's Harriet Dart had little time to respond to the stream of congratulatory messages flashing up on her phone. Most pressing was making a call to her proud parents, Nick and Susie, who had been watching the final with friends at their local tennis club in north London, and her sister Phoebe. The next person she spoke to was 2013 Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli.

Dart has been coached by the French former world number seven since the start of the season on a part-time basis, and she credits Bartoli for helping her achieve what some thought was beyond her. On Sunday, with Bartoli watching from home, the world number 115 won the Guangzhou Open in China by beating rising Austrian teenager Lilli Tagger. "It's been quite incredible to work with Marion, and I was really fortunate she was open to working with me," Dart, 30, told BBC Sport in a video call from Guangzhou. "I'm obviously at a very different stage of my career to someone who is, say, 20.