Mary Pierce

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Mary Pierce

Country	France
Residence	Sarasota, Florida, USA
Date of birth	January 15, 1975
Place of birth	Montreal, Canada
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb)
Turned Pro	March 1989
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career Prize Money	$ 9,793,119
Singles
Career record:	511-237
Career titles:	18 WTA, 2 ITF
Highest ranking:	No. 3 (January 30, 1995)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	W (1995)
French Open	W (2000)
Wimbledon	QF (1996, 2005)
U.S. Open	F (2005)
Doubles
Career record:	197-116
Career titles:	10 WTA, 4 ITF
Highest ranking:	No. 3 (July 10, 2000)
Infobox last updated on: January 15, 2007.

Mary Pierce (born on 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. With her tall, lanky frame, Pierce has also had a secondary occupation as an occasional fashion model.

Pierce was born in Montreal while her French mother and American father were on a trip to the city. She was raised in the United States and lives in Sarasota, Florida. Thus, she has had or has been eligible for United States, Canadian, and French citizenship, and she has represented France in international tennis competitions many times. She speaks English and French fluently.

Contents 1 Early career 2 1995 - 2003 3 2004 - 2005 4 2006 4.1 Knee Injury 5 Personal life 6 Grand Slam singles finals 6.1 Wins (2) 6.2 Runner-ups (4) 7 Grand Slam doubles finals 7.1 Wins (2) 8 Singles titles (18) 9 Major tournament singles performance timeline 10 WTA Tour career earnings 11 External links

[edit] Early career

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.) She quickly gained a reputation for being one of the all-time hardest hitters on the women's circuit.

During her first few years on the tour, Pierce was better known for the behavior of her father, more so 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 notoriously 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 to leave her alone. She withdrew from the Wimbledon tournament 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. She became first player to reach the 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 defeat of World No. 1 Steffi Graf in the semifinals. In the final, Pierce lost 6-4, 6-4 to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario.

[edit] 1995 - 2003

In 1995, Pierce won her first Grand Slam title by defeating Arantxa 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. Pierce also won the Japan Open, defeating Sanchez-Vicario, 6-3, 6-3

In 1996, Pierce suffered a series of setbacks, including her split with Nick Bollieteri after failing to defend her title at the 1996 Australian Open. Aside from a runner-up finish in Amelia Island and a semifinal finish in Hamburg, the highlight of the year for Pierce was her first appearance in the Wimbledon quarterfinals

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 that won the 1997 Fed Cup and her only title that season was the Italian Open, defeating Conchita Martinez 6-4, 6-0. Pierce also won the Comeback Player of the Year award for ending the year at No. 7 in the world after starting at No. 21.

Pierce won four titles in 1998: Open Gaz de France, Amelia Island, the Kremlin Cup, and Luxembourg. In addition, she was the runner-up in San Diego.

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.

[edit] 2004 - 2005

After a few quiet years on the tour, Pierce won her first title since the 2000 French Open at 's-Hertogenbosch.

She then burst back into the top ranks of the women's game in 2005. At the French Open, she reached the singles final for the third time, where she lost 6-1, 6-1 to Justine Henin-Hardenne. She then reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon for the first time since 1996. Pierce faced Venus Williams in that quarterfinal and lost the match after a long 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 2005 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 quarterfinals, Pierce defeated third seed Amélie Mauresmo 6-4, 6-1 to reach her first US Open semifinal. 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 semifinals. The match was quite controversial, as Pierce was scrutinized for "abusing" the medical time-out rule. After losing the first set, Pierce took 2 6-minute breaks in a row to have a back treatment. Afterwards she came out playing just fine, while Dementieva stuggled to regain her form from the perhaps broken momentum. In the final, she lost to Kim Clijsters 6-3, 6-1.

After the US Open, Pierce won her second title of 2005 at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. In her quarterfinal match against Russian Elena Likhovtseva, Pierce came back from 0-6 in the third set tiebreak (6 match points down) and won 8 consecutive points to reach the semifinals. The final score of the match was 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(6).

The win in Moscow secured her spot at the WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles where the top eight singles players in the world competed for the winner's prize of one million dollars. In round-robin play with her assigned group of four players, she won all three matches: against Clijsters in three sets; Mauresmo in three sets; and Dementieva in straight sets. In the semifinals, Pierce beat top-ranked Lindsay Davenport 7-6(5), 7-6(6). However, Pierce lost a very close final to Mauresmo. The score was 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-4. Many thought Mary had the title in her hands when she broke Mauresmo for 4-3 in the third, but that would be the last game she'd win.

Pierce's year-end ranking was No. 5, a considerable improvement on her year-beginning ranking of No. 29. This matched her career-best performances of 1994, 1995, and 1999, and she was less than 200 points behind Maria Sharapova for No. 4 and less than 300 points behind Mauresmo for No. 3. Pierce's return to form in 2005 was one of the most surprising tennis stories of the year. Her successful performance in 2005 also encouraged the former world No. 1 player, Martina Hingis, to return to the game.

[edit] 2006

Pierce trained hard in the off-season in a bid to win major titles in 2006. Her first tournament of the year was the Australian Open. She defeated Nicole Pratt of Australia 6-1, 6-1 in the first round before losing 6-3, 7-5 to Iveta Benešová of the Czech Republic in the second round. The loss denied her a third-round match with Martina Hingis.

Pierce reached the final of her next tournament, the Gaz de France in Paris, where she lost to compatriot Amélie Mauresmo 6-1, 7-6(6).

Pierce did not play again until August because of foot and groin injuries, withdrawing from the French Open and Wimbledon.

After spending six months away from the tour, Pierce began her comeback at the Acura Classic in San Diego, where she was the 2005 champion. She received a bye in the first round and then defeated Austria's Sybille Bammer 6-1, 6-7(7), 7-6(4), recovering from a 5-3 deficit in the deciding set. In the third round, Pierce defeated Finland's Emma Laine 6-2, 6-1. In the quarterfinals, Pierce lost to Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-3.

In just her second tournament in over six months, Pierce played at the U.S. Open. Pierce won her first round match against Elena Vesnina 7-5, 6-1 and defeated Eva Birnerova 6-3, 6-4 in the second round. Na Li, the 24th seed from China, defeated Pierce in the third round 4-6, 6-0, 6-0.

Pierce then lost in the first round of the next three tournaments she played. She was defeated in Luxembourg by Alona Bondarenko 6-3, 6-3, who went on to win the title. Jelena Janković defeated Pierce in Stuttgart 7-6(7), 6-3. And Katarina Srebotnik defeated Pierce in Zurich 6-3, 7-5.

[edit] Knee Injury

At a tournament in Linz in October, Pierce defeated Ai Sugiyama in the first round and was leading Vera Zvonareva 6-4, 6-5 in the second round when Pierce ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament. She had held three match points before the injury. Pierce underwent a successful operation in December 2006 and is expected to miss at least the first six months of 2007. Currently in France, she is working every day to return to the WTA tour as soon as possible.^{[citation needed]} She is adamant on making a comeback, but only when completely prepared.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Personal life

Pierce was engaged for a period to former Major League Baseball player Roberto Alomar.

In 2006, Pierce announced her engagement to an Air France pilot.

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 was also Pierce's regular coach until 2006. She has recently become somewhat reconciled with father Jim and occasionally does practice sessions with him.

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals

[edit] Wins (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1995	Australian Open	Arantxa Sanchez Vicario	6-3, 6-2
2000	French Open	Conchita Martinez	6-2, 7-5

[edit] Runner-ups (4)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1994	French Open	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6-4, 6-4
1997	Australian Open	Martina Hingis	6-2, 6-2
2005	French Open (2)	Justine Henin	6-1, 6-1
2005	U.S. Open	Kim Clijsters	6-3, 6-1

[edit] Grand Slam doubles finals

[edit] Wins (2)

Year	Championship	Event	Partnering	Opponents in Final	Score/Final
2000	French Open	Women's doubles	Martina Hingis	Virginia Ruano Pascual Paola Suarez	6-2, 6-4
2005	Wimbledon	Mixed doubles	Mahesh Bhupathi	Paul Hanley Tatiana Perebiynis	6-4, 6-2

[edit] Singles titles (18)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	July 14, 1991	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Sandra Cecchini	6-0, 6-3
2.	February 23, 1992	Cesena, Italy	Carpet	Catherine Tanvier	6-1, 6-1
3.	July 12, 1992	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Brenda Schultz-McCarthy	6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-1
4.	November 1, 1992	San Juan, Puerto Rico	Hard	Gigi Fernandez	6-1, 7-5
5.	October 17, 1993	Filderstadt, Germany	Hard	Natasha Zvereva	6-3, 6-3
6.	January 29, 1995	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	6-3, 6-2
7.	September 24, 1995	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	6-3, 6-3
8.	May 11, 1997	Rome, Italy	Clay	Conchita Martinez	6-4, 6-0
9.	February 15, 1998	Paris, France	Carpet	Dominique van Roost	6-3, 7-5
10.	April 12, 1998	Amelia Island, USA	Green Clay	Conchita Martinez	6-7 (8), 6-0, 6-2
11.	October 25, 1998	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Monica Seles	7-6 (2), 6-3
12.	November 1, 1998	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Carpet	Silvia Farina Elia	6-0, 2-0 retired
13.	October 31, 1999	Linz, Austria	Carpet	Sandrine Testud	7-6 (2), 6-1
14.	April 23, 2000	Hilton Head, USA	Green Clay	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	6-1, 6-0
15.	June 11, 2000	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Conchita Martinez	6-2, 7-5
16.	June 19, 2004	's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands	Grass	Klara Koukalova	7-6 (6), 6-2
17.	August 17, 2005	San Diego, USA	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	6-0, 6-3
18.	October 16, 2005	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Francesca Schiavone	6-4, 6-3

[edit] Major tournament singles performance timeline

Tournament	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Career SR
Australian Open	A	A	A	QF	4R	W	2R	F	QF	QF	4R	3R	1R	2R	A	1R	2R	A	1 / 13
French Open	2R	3R	4R	4R	F	4R	3R	4R	2R	2R	W	A	QF	1R	3R	F	A		1 / 15
Wimbledon	A	A	A	A	A	2R	QF	4R	1R	4R	2R	A	3R	4R	1R	QF	A		0 / 10
U.S. Open	A	3R	4R	4R	QF	3R	A	4R	4R	QF	4R	A	1R	1R	4R	F	3R		0 / 14
Grand Slam SR	0 / 1	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 3	0 / 3	1 / 4	0 / 3	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	1 / 4	0 / 1	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 3	0 / 4	0 / 2	0 / 0	2 / 52
WTA Tour Championships	A	A	A	SF	SF	4R	A	F	QF	QF	A	A	A	A	A	F	A		0 / 7

A = did not participate in the tournament

SR = the ratio of the number of tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played

[edit] WTA Tour career earnings

Year	Majors	WTA wins	Total wins	Earnings ($)	Money list rank
1991	0	1	1	94,582	53
1992	0	3	3	183,436	26
1993	0	1	1	347,360	19
1994	0	0	0	No information
1995	1	1	2	698,838	7
1996	0	0	0	195,570	34
1997	0	1	1	881,639	7
1998	0	4	4	656,780	11
1999	0	1	1	857,078	6
2000	1	1	2	1,208,018	4
2001	0	0	0	No information
2002	0	0	0	185,095	59
2003	0	0	0	308,146	37
2004	0	1	1	344,481	35
2005	0	2	2	2,525,403	4
2006	0	0	0	144,168	106
Career	2	16	18	9,774,059	15

[edit] External links

• WTA Tour profile for Mary Pierce
• Fed Cup record
• Mark Spruce Site
• Mary Pierce at the Internet Movie Database