Mary Pierce

Mary Pierce
Mary Pierce 2003
Nickname:	diva
Nation:	France
Birthday:	15th January 1975
Size:	178 cm
1st professional season:	1989
Resignation:	2006
Playing hand:	Right, two-handed backhand
Prize money:	$ 9,793,119
singles
Career record:	511: 237
Career title:	16 WTA
Highest ranking:	3 (January 30 1995)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	197: 116
Career title:	10
Highest ranking:	3 (July 10, 2000)
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Mary Pierce (born January 15, 1975 in Montreal , Canada ) is a former French tennis player .

Life

Mary Pierce was born in Canada to the American Jim and the French Yannick Pierce . Her brother David has trained her several times over the course of her career. Until 1990, Pierce had US, Canadian and French citizenship . Since the French Tennis Federation supported her financially more, she played for France from then on . Mary Pierce is an avowed Christian.

At the beginning of her career she was looked after and trained exclusively by her father Jim. However, the zeal for training soon led to an obsession with her father, who had been in prison for four years in 1960 for armed robbery. Mary had to spend six to eight hours a day on the square and then usually walk home after father's car. Cups won at youth tournaments for second or third places were simply thrown away and she often had to hit balls with her father after defeat, even in pouring rain. When Pierce came on the tour, she had no girlfriend among the players because everyone was afraid of her father. "Mary, kill the bitch" (in German, for example: "Mary, kill the bitch!") He often shouted from the stands. In 1993, the WTA intervened during the French Open and issued the so-called "Jim Pierce Rule", which excluded him from all official tournaments for five years. However, he did not let himself be forbidden to interact with his daughter and lay in wait for her in Rome, where he fought with her bodyguards. For the following years, Mary traveled with her mother and brother David. Her aunt was often there during the French Open.

Career

1989–1991: Entry into the tour

In April 1989 Pierce reached in Hilton Head Island for the first time the main draw of a WTA tournament. This made her the youngest player to have played a match there until Jennifer Capriati made her younger debut the following year. In 1990 she played the French Open for the first time; she won a game before she lost 4-6, 4-6 to the then top ten player Mary Joe Fernández in front of a large crowd in the bullring, the third main place in Roland Garros . The following year she reached the third round of the French Open before winning her first WTA title in Palermo. In the final, she defeated the top seed Sandra Cecchini 6: 0, 6: 3. Shortly afterwards she made her debut in the French Fed Cup team. After further successes towards the end of the year, she reached position 26 in the world rankings.

1992–1993: First successes

In 1992 Pierce defended her title in Palermo and also won the Puerto Rico Open. At the Grand Slam tournaments in Paris and New York, she fought her way into the third round. In August she lost her second game at the Olympic Games in Barcelona. She reached her first Grand Slam quarter-finals in 1993 at the Australian Open . However, the match against Gabriela Sabatini turned out to be one of her bitterest defeats. She left six match points unused in the second set and so she was defeated by the then number 3 in the world with 6: 4, 6: 7 (12:14), 0: 6. In autumn Pierce won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Filderstadt (6-3, 6-3 final victory over Natallja Swerawa ). With good results she reached the WTA Masters final, where she took revenge on Sabatini and even defeated tennis legend Martina Navrátilová 6: 1, 3: 6, 6: 4 in the quarterfinals . In the semifinals she lost to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (2: 6, 7: 5, 2: 6).

1994–1995: First Grand Slam title

After a good clay court season in 1994, in which Pierce was in the finals in Houston and even defeated Sánchez Vicario in Hilton Head, she took part in the French Open. She set a record: up to the semi-finals, she only gave six games in five games, and only ten up to the final. In the round of the last four she was able to clearly defeat the number one at the time, Steffi Graf , 6: 2, 6: 2, before losing the final to Sánchez Vicario 4: 6, 4: 6. Nevertheless Pierce reached the top 10 for the first time and even the top 5 after taking part in the quarter-finals at the US Open . In the final in Leipzig she was defeated by Jana Novotná , in Filderstadt and Philadelphia by Anke Huber . At the WTA Masters she defeated Steffi Graf again and reached the semi-finals. In 1995 she was able to record her first Grand Slam victory in Melbourne. In the final, she defeated Sánchez Vicario 6-3, 6-2. Pierce moved up to 3rd place in the world rankings. At the indoor tournament in Paris she lost the final against Steffi Graf. In June she took part in the All English Championships at Wimbledon for the first time . In Tokyo she won the second title of the season and finished the year in 5th place.

1996: Out of shape

The year 1996 began disappointingly with the early elimination at the Australian Open against Jelena Lichowzewa . The highlights of the year were the final in Amelia Island as well as the semi-finals in Hamburg and their first quarter-final participation in Wimbledon . She reached round two of the Atlanta Olympics.

1997: Return to the top 10

In 1997 Pierce moved into the final of the Australian Open as a bad seed. In the spring she played her way back into the top 10 after beating the four-time Italian Open winner Conchita Martínez in the Rome final 6: 4, 6: 0 and reaching the final in Berlin and Amelia Island. In October she was the top player in the French Fed Cup team, which defeated the Netherlands 4-1 in the final and won the team competition. In 1997, Pierce was one of only five players who managed to beat the dominant player of the season, Martina Hingis . At the Masters, she defeated the Swiss woman in three sets 6: 3, 2: 6, 7: 5. For the first time she reached the final of the unofficial World Cup, where she had no chance against Jana Novotná. At the end of the season she was awarded for the comeback of the year. Pierce, who started in 25th place, ended the season in 7th place.

1998–1999: Solid years

In the next two years she played at a consistently good level. In 1998 she won four titles, including for the first time the Gaz de France Open in Paris, where she defeated Dominique van Roost in the final . She also defeated both Venus Williams and Monica Seles in Moscow and reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. In San Diego, she again defeated number one in the world, Martina Hingis, in the semi-finals. In 1999 she reached both the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and the US Open. However, after the match against Lindsay Davenport , she had to cope with the disappointment that she missed match points in the third set and lost 2: 6, 6: 3, 5: 7 in the end. With a victory over Sandrine Testud she won the title of Linz and reached four other finals, including in Rome and Hamburg. At the Masters she was able to win against Anna Kurnikowa despite a 6: 7, 2: 5 deficit.

2000: Another high point

In Hilton Head in 2000, on the way to the title, she not only defeated Jelena Dokić , but also clay court specialist Sánchez Vicario (6: 1, 6: 0) and the nine-time Grand Slam winner Monica Seles (6: 1, 6: 1). Shortly afterwards, she met Seles again at the Grand Slam tournament in Paris. She succeeded in a well-respected blow when she played a ball through the legs as praise over Seles and won the point. In the semi-finals, she met number one, Martina Hingis, who had won the last seven games against Pierce. Hingis was able to fend off a match point in the second set and win the round. But Pierce was able to win 6: 4, 5: 7, 6: 2 and defeat Conchita Martínez 6: 2, 7: 5 in the final and thus perfect the second Grand Slam title of her career. She also won the doubles competition alongside Hingis. Due to shoulder problems, she only played two tournaments in the season. At the US Open, she gave up against Anke Huber .

2001–2002: bad luck with injuries

In 2001 Pierce suffered from persistent back and shoulder problems, which made her take eight months off and think about retiring. A semi-final in Canberra was their best result. At the end of the season she was only 130th. In 2002, her comeback in Australia was prevented by an abdominal muscle strain. She came back just in time for the clay court season, but completely out of shape due to the long break. In Rome she suffered the clearest defeat of her career before surprisingly advanced to the quarter-finals of the French Open. At Wimbledon, she ended the career of Sandrine Testud with their second round defeat. After a temporary ranking of 295th place, it was back in 53rd place at the end of 2002.

2003–2005: Gradual return to the top

Weight problems caused Pierce to change her training plan and play more doubles again. In 's-Hertogenbosch , she reached the final with Nadia Petrowa , before shortly afterwards winning with Rennae Stubbs in Los Angeles, defeating 46-year-old Martina Navrátilová with her 29-year-old partner Swetlana Kuznetsova . In singles, she made it to the round of 16 at Wimbledon and New York and the semi-finals in Filderstadt and Québec . At the end of the year she played in the Fed Cup and France took the title for the second time since 1997. In 2004 Pierce started the season at the indoor event in Paris, where she reached her first final in almost four years. In 's-Hertogenbosch she won the first turf title of her career with a 7: 6, 6: 2 win over Klára Zakopalová . At the Olympic Games in Athens she defeated Venus Williams 6: 4, 6: 4 in the third round and in New York she threw the newly crowned Wimbledon winner Maria Sharapova out of the tournament (4: 6, 6: 2, 6: 3 ) and was only defeated by the later tournament winner Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In the 2005 season Pierce was eliminated in Melbourne at the beginning and a quarter-finals in Indian Wells was the highlight of the first half of the year. At the French Open she then wrestled Wera Swonarjowa 7: 6, 7: 5 in the third round , in the round of 16 Patty Schnyder , against whom she needed eleven match points to win. In the quarter-finals she won against the number one in the world, Lindsay Davenport, and shortly afterwards reached her fifth Grand Slam final. But in front of the home crowd she lost to Justine Henin 1: 6, 1: 6. In the ranking again among the top fifteen, she was able to advance to the quarter-finals for the second time at Wimbledon, where she was defeated by Venus Williams. In the mixed competition, she won the title together with Mahesh Bhupathi . Then Pierce won the tournament in San Diego and she reached the final at the US Open after victories over Justine Henin, Amélie Mauresmo and Jelena Dementjewa , which she lost to Kim Clijsters 3: 6, 1: 6. Nevertheless, thanks to her victories, she managed to return to the top 10. In Moscow Pierce turned a 0: 6 deficit in the tie-break of the third set against Jelena Lichowzewa and won 7: 5, 4: 6, 7: 6 (8: 6). Two days later she held the trophy for the 18th career title in her hands. At the end of the year she took part in the Masters for the first time since 1999. There she defeated Kim Clijsters (6: 1, 4: 6, 7: 6), Jelena Dementjewa (6: 2, 6: 3) and Amélie Mauresmo (2: 6, 6: 4, 6: 2) and achieved that undefeated Semi-finals, where she defeated top seed Lindsay Davenport in the tiebreaker. But in the first all-French final between her and Amélie Mauresmo, she lost to her compatriot in three sets with 7: 5, 6: 7, 4: 6.

2006–2007: setbacks and no further comeback

In 2006 Pierce reached the final of the indoor tournament in Paris before she had to pause because of an ankle injury. In the summer she returned to San Diego and reached the quarterfinals and the third round of the US Open. At the end of October at the WTA tournament in Linz in the second round match against Vera Swonarjowa , she tore a cruciate ligament in her left knee; previously she had not been able to use three match points. In December she had an operation, and in early 2007 she started physiotherapy in Vail . In 2007, during the French Open tournament, a street in the Stade Roland Garros was named in her honor Allée Mary Pierce .

successes

Grand Slam title in singles (2)

year	competition	Final opponent	Result
1995	Australian Open	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6: 3, 6: 2
2000	French Open	Conchita Martínez	6: 2, 7: 5

Finals in individual (4)

year	competition	Tournament winner	Result
1994	French Open	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	4: 6, 4: 6
1997	Australian Open	Martina Hingis	2: 6, 2: 6
2005	French Open	Justine Henin-Hardenne	1: 6, 1: 6
2005	US Open	Kim Clijsters	3: 6, 1: 6

Grand Slam title in doubles / mixed (2)

year	competition	Partner	Final opponents	Result
2000	French Open	Martina Hingis	Virginia Ruano Pascual Paola Suarez	6: 2, 6: 4
2005	Wimbledon	Mahesh Bhupathi	Tetjana Perebyjnis Paul Hanley	6: 4, 6: 2

Finals in doubles (1)

year	competition	Partner	Final opponents	Result
2000	Australian Open	Martina Hingis	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	4: 6, 7: 5, 4: 6

Single title WTA Tour

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	July 14, 1991	Palermo	sand	Sandra Cecchini	6: 0 6: 3
2.	February 23, 1992	Cesena	Carpet (hall)	Catherine Tanvier	6: 1, 6: 1
3.	July 12, 1992	Palermo	sand	Brenda Schultz	6: 1, 6: 7, 6: 1
4th	November 1, 1992	San Juan	Hard court	Gigi Fernández	6: 1, 7: 5
5.	17th October 1993	Filderstadt	Hard court (hall)	Natascha Swerawa	6: 3, 6: 3
6th	September 24, 1995	Tokyo	Hard court	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6: 3, 6: 3
7th	May 11, 1997	Rome	sand	Conchita Martínez	6: 4, 6: 0
8th.	February 15, 1998	Paris	Carpet (hall)	Dominique Van Roost	6: 3, 7: 5
9.	April 12, 1998	Amelia Island	sand	Conchita Martínez	6: 7, 6: 0, 6: 2
10.	October 25, 1998	Moscow	Carpet (hall)	Monica Seles	7: 6, 6: 3
11.	October 31, 1998	Luxembourg	Carpet (hall)	Silvia Farina	6: 0, 2: 0 exercise
12.	October 31, 1999	Linz	Carpet (hard court)	Sandrine Testud	7: 6, 6: 1
13.	April 23, 2000	Hilton Head	sand	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6: 1, 6: 0
14th	June 19, 2004	's-Hertogenbosch	race	Klára Koukalová	7: 6 6 , 6: 2
15th	August 7, 2005	San Diego	Hard court	Ai Sugiyama	6: 0, 6: 3
16.	October 16, 2005	Moscow	Carpet (hall)	Francesca Schiavone	6: 4, 6: 3

Style of play

Mary Pierce played the backhand with both hands, Slice only when needed. Her strengths were her serve, which she could play straight as well as with slice and - unfamiliar in women's tennis - with a kick. She came out of her legs very well due to the slightly delayed backward movement, which also resulted in a high speed. Her backhand was more natural than her forehand and just as powerful, but less prone to error. She had an excellent backhand longline. One of her best variations was the short forehand cross. On the net, she showed a solid flight ball game , preferring the volleys they hit to the classic ones - she is considered the inventor of this stroke alongside Andre Agassi and Monica Seles . She played both stop balls and half-high punches on the defensive. She always tried to dictate the rallies, also because she had deficits in terms of fitness and footwork.

Personal

In 1997, Mary Pierce was in a relationship with Mark Philippoussis for a year and a half , then engaged to American baseball player Roberto Alomar for four years. Sven Groeneveld influenced them. The Dutchman coached Pierce several times, including 1995 and 2003; he is still active today as a permanent advisor. Over the course of her career, Pierce developed closer friendships with Martina Hingis , Amélie Mauresmo , Conchita Martínez and Nathalie Dechy . In 2019 she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame .

Web links

Commons : Mary Pierce  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• WTA profile Mary Pierce (English)
• ITF profile Mary Pierce (English)
• Fed Cup stats by Mary Pierce (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ New Life and Purpose Found by Mary Pierce
2. ^ Li Na, Mary Pierce, Yevgeny Kafelnikov to be inducted into International Tennis Hall of Fame. In: tennisfame.com. January 18, 2019, accessed on July 21, 2019 .