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Mary Pierce
Mary Pierce (born January 15, 1975, in Montreal, Canada)
is a professional tennis player. She has appeared in six Grand Slam singles
finals during her career – winning two of them – and also claimed
two Grand Slam doubles titles.
Pierce was born in Montreal while her French mother and American
father were on a trip to the city, but she has never lived in Canada. She
was raised in the United States and lives in Bradenton, Florida, but also
has French citizenship and has represented France in international tennis
competitions, apparently due to her disappointment with the American Federation
of Tennis in its preferential treatment and sponsoring of Jennifer Capriati
as an up and coming youth player.
Pierce was introduced to tennis at the age of 10 by her father
Jim Pierce. Just two years later, she won the US national 12-and-under junior
title. In 1989, she became the youngest American player to make her debut
on the professional tour, aged 14 years and 2 months. (This record was broken
the following year by Jennifer Capriati.)
During her first few years on the tour, Pierce was known
more for the behaviour of her father than her performances on court. Jim
Pierce, who also coached Mary, often shouted abuse at her opponents during
matches. On one occasion when he was sitting in the stands, he famously screamed:
"Mary, kill the bitch!" He was also reportedly often verbally and
physically abusive to Mary during practice sessions and after defeats. Jim
Pierce was ejected from the French Open in 1993 after he punched a spectator,
following which he was banned from all Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour
events until 1998. The incident also prompted the WTA to pass a new rule
(commonly referred to as the "Jim Pierce Rule") which prohibits
abusive conduct on the part of players, coaches and relatives. Mary dropped
her father as her coach in 1993 and took out a restraining order against
him. A few weeks later, he got into a fight with her bodyguard at a hotel
where she was staying. He then sued her claiming that he had been promised
25% of her earnings as a tennis player, and she paid him US$500,000 to drop
the suit and leave her alone. She withdrew from Wimbledon in 1994 after a
British tabloid newspaper threatened to smuggle her father into the grounds.
In 1994, Pierce reached her first Grand Slam final at the
French Open in record-breaking style. She became first player to reach championship's
fourth round while dropping only two games. She conceded just 10 games during
her route to the final, which included a 6-2, 6-2 thrashing of World No.
1 Steffi Graf in the semi-finals. In the final she lost 6-4, 6-4 to Arantxa
Sánchez Vicario.
In 1995, Pierce won her first Grand Slam title by beating
Sánchez Vicario 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the Australian Open. She
reached her career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 that year.
In 1997, Pierce was back in the Australian Open singles final,
where she lost 6-2, 6-2 to Martina Hingis. She also lost in that year's WTA
Tour Championships final to Jana Novotná. Pierce was a member of the
French team which won the 1997 Fed Cup.
Pierce won her second Grand Slam singles title and her first
Grand Slam doubles title at the French Open in 2000. In the singles final,
she defeated Conchita Martínez 6-2, 7-5 to become the first French
woman to claim the title since Francoise Durr in 1967. And she partnered
Martina Hingis to win the women's doubles crown (the pair had also finished
runners-up at the Australian Open earlier that year).
Pierce helped France win the Fed Cup for a second time in
2003.
In 2004, Pierce won her first title since the 2000 French
Open at 's-Hertogenbosch, to bring her career total to 16 singles titles.
Pierce was engaged for a period to former Major League Baseball
player Roberto Alomar. However the two stars are no longer together. Following
her split from her father in 1993, Pierce was coached by Nick Bollettieri,
whose tennis academy she had briefly attended as a teenager in 1988. Her
brother David is currently her regular coach. She has also recently become
reconciled with father Jim, and occasionally does practice sessions with
him.
Pierce in 2005
In 2005, Pierce reached the French Open singles final for
a third time, where she lost 6-1, 6-1 to Justine Henin-Hardenne. She confirmed
that the appearance, which followed victories over higher-ranked players
including No. 1 Lindsay Davenport, was no fluke when she reached the quarter-finals
of the 2005 Wimbledon tournament for the first time since 1996. Pierce faced
Venus Williams in the quarter-final and lost the match after a thrilling
second set tiebreak consisting of 22 points. Pierce also won the mixed-doubles
title at Wimbledon, partnering Mahesh Bhupathi. On August 7, Pierce won her
first singles title of the year at San Diego, defeating Ai Sugiyama in the
final. Pierce then reached the final of the US Open. In the fourth round,
she defeated Justine Henin-Hardenne for the first time in her career and
avenged her French Open final defeat by winning 6-3, 6-4. In the quarter-finals,
Pierce outclassed third seed Amelie Mauresmo 6-4, 6-1 to reach her first
US Open semi-final. After the victory Pierce remarked: "I'm 30 and I
have been on the tour for 17 years and there are still firsts for me. That's
pretty amazing." She reached the final by defeating Elena Dementieva
3-6, 6-2, 6-2. In the final, she lost to Kim Clijsters 6-3, 6-1. Her great
form brought her to her third big final of 2005: a Tier 1 event at Moscow
(Kremlin Cup). The win in Moscow secured her spot at the WTA Tour Championships
in Los Angeles where the top 8 players in the world compete for the luxurious
1st place prize of 1 Million dollars. She won her three group matches against
Clijsters in three sets, Mauresmo in three sets and Dementieva in straight
sets. In the semi-final Pierce beat top-ranked Lindsay Davenport in an intense
2 tie-breakers 7-6(5),7-6(6), before losing a close final to compatriot Mauresmo.
Pierce's hugely successful season secured her the impressive year-end rank
of No. 5 after starting the year as the No. 29. Pierce's year-end rank matched
her career-best performances of 1994, 1995, and 1999, and she less than 200
points behind Maria Sharapova for No. 4 and less than 300 points behind Mauresmo
for No. 3. A successful start to 2006 would guarantee Pierce more ranking
points as her early start to 2005 was relatively unsuccessful - therefore,
by winning more points than she did the year before, she should increase
her ranking.
Pierce's return to form in 2005 has been one of the most
pleasantly surprising tennis stories of the year.
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