Article by Gerhard Grundhammer

1st match preview

As canadian born Mary Pierce entered the WTA she was only 14 years and two monthes, which made her the second-youngest girl ever to join prefessional tennis. In fact, at the time she started her career, which was in Amelia Island in 1990, she was the youngest girl, and got only topped by Jennifer
Capriati a few years later.

But the first headlines the newspapers wrote about the Pierce family, were about her Dad Jim and not about Mary. He put a lot of pressure on his daughter, shouted and gesticulated during her matches, and swore at Mary as well as at umpires if his daughter lost! As those agressive actions did not stop and he once even had a fight during Mary`s match he got banned from all WTA-Tournaments worldwide ( like Richard Pavely ) and was only allowed back earlier this year in Paris.

 Because of her mother Mary owns a french passport, but though she claims Paris as her residence, she never lived in France. Currently she spents the most of her freetime in Cleveland, Ohio, and practices at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy.  In 1991 she won her first tourny: Palermo. 1994 was the year she reached her first Grand-Slam final (Rolland Garros) and 1995 the year she won a Grand Slam. The first success of a french player since Francoise Durr in 1967.

The righthanded player faced Jelena three times. She lost to Jelena at Wimbledon 1999 4-6 and 3-6 and beat her at the Family-Circle-Cup 2000 6-3 and 6-1. About 6 weeks ago Jelena gave Mary a tennis-lesson, upsetting her 6-2 and 6-0 at the Bausch & Lomb Championships!!!  For those who are interested in statistics i found something about that match:

                              Pierce          Dokic
1stServe%                     63%             69%
ACES                           1               3
DOUBLEFAULTS                   0               5
Winning% - 1st Serve Pts.     28%             81%
Winning% - 2nd Serve Pts.     47%             50%
Winners                        7              25
Unforced Errors               17              12
Break Points Won               1               6
Net Approaches                 7              15
Net Approaches Won             0              12
Total Points Won              25              54
Fastest Serve Speed          102mph           97mph

looks like Jelena has been dominating Mary Pierce, especially at her own serve, but surely the former no7 of the world can do better.