'The fun is back'
No. 7 Pierce happily and quietly advances to fourth round
Posted: Saturday January 23, 1999 01:52 AM
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Pierce: "There are so many good women players now. The young girls get all the attention, and that's natural." AP |
Before Anna and the Williams sisters, there was Mary
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- There was glamor in women's tennis before Anna Kournikova sashayed onto court. There were power players before the Williams sisters hit town.
Whatever happened to Mary Pierce?
She won the Australian Open champion in 1995 and was a finalist in 1997. The hip-high bounce of Melbourne's Rebound Ace courts sets up perfectly for her crunching groundstrokes. She is the No. 7 seed and has lost only six games in the first two rounds.
But nobody is listing her among the contenders.
"I've noticed that, but it doesn't bother me," Pierce said Friday. "There are so many good women players now. The young girls get all the attention, and that's natural."
Natural for someone who celebrated her 24th birthday three days before this tournament, someone who is between Steffi Graf, a veteran at 29, and the new teen queens hogging the spotlight.
So, which contenders impress her most?
"I'd say the Williams sisters [Venus and Serena]," she said. "Great power. Exciting to watch. They're very athletic, strong, confident."
Pierce might get a chance to face Venus, who is winning in the other half of the draw.
On Saturday, Pierce beat Italy's Rita Grande 6-2, 6-2, advancing
to a fourth-round match against No. 12 Anna Kournikova.
"I'm pretty happy, except with my serve," Pierce said. "I
definitely will have to step it up another level. I need to be more
consistent and serve better if I want to give myself a chance to
beat the top players."
Pierce knows about generating excitement, and feeling it.
"I would say the emotions you feel on court superscede by far anything in life," she said. "You love doing it and it's just your whole life right there. You have such amazing feelings. Nothing else exists for you. You don't even hear the crowd."
Strong feelings aren't enough. Pierce never sustained the buoyant aggression and focused ambition of that 1995 Australian summer.
"I felt I'd proved something to the people who thought I wasn't up to it and I'd proved to myself I could do it," she said. "I always knew I had the game, but I didn't have the record. So in '95 I was very satisfied. I was at No. 3. I was close to my lifetime dream of getting to No. 1.
"Probably I just got too caught up in things and put so much pressure on myself. Tennis became more of a job instead of fun. Now the fun is back."
There are reasons. Memories of the tense relationship with her father Jim are fading, as are the strains of assuming a French persona and building a French career.
With a French-born mother, Yannick, and American father, Pierce's loyalties have been divided. She opted to play in France in 1990, and played 17 matches for her adoptive country in the Fed Cup between July 1990 and October 1997. But she won't be playing for France this year.
"There will always be a French element in me through my mother, her family and the times I've spent there," she said. "But I was raised in the States, my first language is English and I feel more comfortable living in America."
Florida is her home state, where she lives with baseball star Roberto Alomar. Previously known for her light schedule, she is increasing her workload, partly because of Alomar's example -- he plays all summer, then goes to Puerto Rico and plays winter ball.
"He said to me: 'I just love baseball and when I retire I want to feel I've had enough,' Pierce said. 'If you can play, keep playing. Same thing in tennis. If you're hot, play.' "
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