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.