Marion Bartoli reduced her opponent to tears as she demolished Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova without dropping a game at the mixed teams Hopman Cup in Western Australia yesterday.

The ninth-ranked Bartoli, beaten by world number five Li Na in her first singles match here on Saturday, slaughtered a misfiring Gajdosova 6-0, 6-0 in just 52 minutes as France beat the host nation 3-0.

Gajdosova looked increasingly disconsolate as the match wore on and was in tears in the dying stages as her own game fell apart and Bartoli hit winner after winner.

It was only the third time in the 24-year history of the tournament that a player had suffered a “double bagel” defeat in singles.

The previous victim was fellow Australian Liz Smylie in 1991, who happened to be commentating yesterday’s lopsided match for the host broadcaster.

The Frenchwoman was apologetic after the match and said she felt for Gajdosova.

“I’m sorry I beat her that way but I was just focusing on my own game and not looking at the scoreboard,” Bartoli said.

Richard Gasquet then secured the tie for the French with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 win over Lleyton Hewitt.

Bartoli’s dominant performance franked the form of China’s Li, who earlier showed she had put her post-French Open slump firmly behind her with a commanding win over Spain’s Annabel Medina Garrigues.

Having come from a set down to dispose of Bartoli, the world number five lived up to her claim after that win that she was back by thrashing the 27th-ranked Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-1 despite China losing the tie to the Spanish 2-1 and bowing out of Hopman Cup contention.

Unfortunately for Li, the win over Medina Garrigues was not enough to help the Chinese beat the Spanish, with Fernando Verdasco beating Li’s team-mate Wu Di in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, to level the tie, before the Spanish claimed the tie with an emphatic 6-0, 6-2 win in the deciding mixed doubles.

The winner of the tie between France and Spain tomorrow will advance to Saturday’s final.