Bidding for her first title of the season, top-French Marion Bartoli will take on World No. 46 Swede Sofia Arvidsson in the pre-quarterfinal match at the 2012 Kremlin Cup.

Currently ranked as World No. 10, the twenty seven year old Bartoli has an impressive 41-24 win-loss record for the season. She is gunning for her eighth career title. Earlier this season, she reached the quarterfinals at Sydney and then finished in the third-round at the Aussie Open. The Frenchwoman played some fine tennis on American hard-court circuit, as she reached the quarter-final at Indian Wells and then finished in the semi-final at Miami. She could not do well in the Grand Slams afterwards and ended up finishing in the second-round at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

Her opponent- Arvidsson is currently ranked 46 in the World. With a title to her name in 2012 (Memphis Open), Arvidsson is one of those players on tour who can give some jitters to the higher ranked opponents by grinding in. She has managed compiling a decent win-loss record of 27-21 and would be hoping to surpass her personal best of 29 sometime soon

Both players have met six times before and Arvidsson leads 4-2 in head to head series.