Russian tennis legend Yevgeny Kafelnikov has offered his support to Marion Bartoli as she battles with a weight-related illness. The former Wimbledon champion Bartoli was withdrawn from the women's invitational doubles on medical grounds this week and has said that she is battling an "internal virus" that has led to dramatic, life-threatening weight loss.

Kafelnikov, the former world No 1, revealed this year that his 17-year-old daughter Alesya had an eating disorder and publicly criticised her "radical weight loss" in an attempt to get her to seek help.

"Marion is a great champion and I have no doubt that she's got what it takes to win this battle with her illness," Kafelnikov said. "You just have to be mentally prepared for that climb."

Bartoli, who maintains that she has not lost weight "on purpose", says she has lost more than 3 stones and said that she has been "reduced to eating salad leaves and cucumber without the skin".

"I'm praying to God every day to go back to a normal life," Bartoli said. "Maybe one day my heart will stop because going through all of this is difficult."

Last month Bartoli told The Times that her weight loss was due to lifestyle changes and a controlled diet.

"I think my body just came back to normal. I stopped going to the gym and lifting 200 kilos. I do ballet, yoga and pilates, so everything is long and elastic. It's inner strength but less of the powerful muscles that comes from the thigh that you need in tennis.

"I'm completely gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, salt-free and everything organic."

Bartoli's dramatic weight loss is a scenario all too familiar to Kafelnikov, the two-time Grand-Slam title winner who in March opened up about his daughter's struggles in a social media post. "This is real anorexia," he wrote. "Alesya has 14-year-old followers on Instagram, who support her for losing weight.

"She should not be listening to these idiots. I am strictly against such a radical weight loss!"

Kafelnikov says that Alesya, who works as a model, has fully recovered.

"My daughter is fine now. A lot of girls, especially at the teenage age, want to look slim and unfortunately my daughter was no exception.

Every girlfriend was saying to her, 'You look fat, you look chubby' and it gets inside your head. Thankfully she is OK now and we have got through that."

While Kafelnikov says that he would have no qualms about encouraging young girls to take up tennis, he does point out that the sport brings its own particular pressures.

"The funny thing is that all the top players in tennis are constantly talking about their diet," Kafelnikov said.

"Novak Djokovic is saying he didn't eat wheat for a year or whatever.

"When you're a young teenager you read that kind of material and you think 'I've got to be like that'. But every human being is different."