article by Gerhard Grundhummer..

Canadian born Mary Pierce is one of the last players of the Seles / Graf generation but unlike Monica Seles her best years seem gone for good.

 In 2002 she only won two games. Mary (or Marie, what she prefers to be called) reached round two of the Tasmania Open where she lost to a girl named Anabel Medina-Garrigues and round two of Sarrasota last week. Anastasia Myskina was the name of the girl who beat her there. Further she tried her luck at the Australian Open but had to retire there in round one.

2001 was not much better for the former no7 of the world. Her best result was to reach the semis of Canberra in January, where she lost to Testud.

 Mary really knows what "ups and downs" means. Her career started as most careers of champions. A few wins in her teenage years vs. top players and some losses vs. unknown and rather untalented ones. Her big breakthrough was in Paris 1994 where she reached the Finals of the French Open. Because the girl from Montreal / Quebec prefers the french language to english, she became everybodys darling in France, changed her christian name from Mary to Marie and her popularity went up and up. But then she lost the final, and though she won Wimbledon in 1995 she felt in something like a crisis after that, and the tennis world nearly forgot about her.

 In the late 90s she started a comeback. A new Marie re-entered the tennis-circuit, packed with muscles and with a new christian name again (Mary - how clever!). She won the French Open 2000, beating Monica Seles in the quarters and Martina Hingis in the semis, but the french did not identify with the new Mary, who rather looked as the "Miss World of Bodybuilding" than a tennis girl. After that win she only won one tournament (the Family Circle Cup in 2000).

 The righthanded player faced Jelena twice. She lost to Jela in Wimbly 1999 4-6 and 3-6 and won at the Family Circle Cup in 2000 6-3 and 6-1.

 I found post match interview of her to both matches, which I think say a lot about her caracter and her game:

1999 Wimbledon Championships
4th round Dokic def. Pierce

Question: Mary, is she (Dokic) a flash in the pan, or is she going places? Answer: Thats a tough question. I think, its too premature to ask that kind of question. I mean, you never know in tennis. Only time will tell.

Q. What was your impression of her today?
A. Shes a good fighter. She never gave up. She moves around the court really well, and hit some good shots when she was in trouble.

Q. Did you expect her to play this well?
I had no expectations. I only had seen her play a little bit, so I just went on the court to just do my - just do what I needed to do, and expect a tough match, yes, of course, because you never want to underestimate your opponent.

Next a few unimportant questions..... and then:
Q. Do you think shes got a very similar game to you and its actually quite tough to come up against someone who hits the ball as flat and as hard as you do?
A. If you want to say she has a similar game, I think you can, but I think everybody plays differently. Shes a baseliner. She likes to play aggressive, come forward, take the ball early, and those are the type of players that I`m most challenged by. You know, who bring a lot of balls back and who hit good shots from the baseline.

Q. You have a lot of publicity about the Creatine....
A. I think we can go into French, please

Q. I was going to ask you if you felt it helped your game at all....
A. Can we go into French, please?

from then on Mary did not answer any questions!!!!!!!!!!!!!


2000 Family Circle Cup
Quarterfinals
Mary Pierce def. Jelena Dokic

that interview takes ages, is pretty boring and most of the questions are about her next match so I decided to only write the interesting part:

Q. Dokic is a pretty young player. What did you think of her ability?
A. She has got a lot of talent. She hits the ball very hard, has a decent, good first serve and good second serve, hits the second serve pretty hard, and I think if she contiues to keep working, she can improve.