2005 French Open News
By Eleanor Preston | June 02, 2005

Pierce Poised for Parisian Double

The headline of L’Equipe, France’s national daily sports newspaper, said it all. “It’s Mary’s Day” read the headline. The Mary in question is Mary Pierce, the woman who will once more bear the hopes of her adopted nation when she takes on Justine Henin-Hardenne in Saturday's women’s final.

When Pierce won the Roland Garros title in 2000, it was a surprise enough, but her run to the final this time around has been little short of miraculous. She is on the wrong side of 30 and has done nothing since her victory in Paris five years ago to show that she is capable of ever doing it again. Yet now she is playing as if the last five years of injuries and the attendant loss of form and shape never happened, even if she says she has changed beyond recognition.

“I’m a different person and a different player than five years ago,” Pierce said, in her slightly fey delivery. “It’s not a fairy-tale, though, because I’ve worked very hard. I believe in myself and the very few people that believe in me in my life have really helped me. That’s why I’m here today, because I had something inside of me that said ‘you’re not done yet.’ That just proves that you should never really doubt yourself and that voice inside.”

Watching her rip through Elena Likhovtseva 6-1, 6-1, you would certainly have no clue that Pierce is ranked just 23 in the world, save for some of her volleying, which was unique if nothing else. Indeed, the most surprising thing about Pierce’s  6-1, 6-1 was its lack of drama. This is the woman who has made having nerves into an art-form, the woman who needed 11 match points to win her previous match, yet the only nerves that showed came from the Russian.

After 29 minutes, Pierce was serving for the set and strolling around the Court Philippe Chatrier as though she was playing in the park. If she heard the repeated cries of “Allez Mary,” she didn’t show any sign of acknowledgement, preferring instead to glide around in between points in her own little world, pausing occasionally to giggle to herself as though enjoying some private joke. The Pierce trademarks were all there, of course – the deep breaths, the interminable pauses before serves, the sighing at missed shots – and she still walks with her nose in the air. But her coolness was impressive even if it made for a rather uneventful semifinal.

She may need more than sang froid against Henin-Hardenne in Saturday’s final, especially given that the Belgian has won three clay court titles on the bounce by way of a warm-up, is unbeaten in her last 21 matches and hasn’t dropped so much as a set to Pierce in their three previous matches.

She was certainly far too good for Nadia Petrova, whom she beat 6-2, 6-3 with little trouble. A back injury earlier in the tournament cast a doubt on whether Henin-Hardenne, who won the title in 2003, was going to be able to live up to her status as the pre-tournament favorite, but it does not appear to have deteriorated any, and her only physical problem may be the inevitable tiredness that comes from winning so many matches since her March return from a 2004 season spent mostly on a sickbed with mononucleosis.

“I have to agree I'm getting tired a little bit, you know,” said the Belgian. “It's been a lot of tennis in this tournament.  But today I'm very happy that I could close the match pretty easily, in two sets.  But I'm feeling my legs a little bit heavy. So I think I will have to give my best one more time and then take a rest.”

That rest will mean missing the traditional pre-Wimbledon tune-up at Eastbourne, a necessary sacrifice that means she will head to SW19 a little undercooked. If she wins Roland Garros, she may consider it a small price to pay.

“It would be a great achievement to win for sure.  It's special because what happened in the last few months has been very difficult for myself, and I could never imagine that for my first Grand Slam back I would be in the final,” she said. “As I said to Carlos my coach and to my husband Pierre-Yves before coming here, ‘Roland Garros is very special for me, everybody knows that.’ I said, ‘If I win only once again in my career a Grand Slam tournament, I wish it would be Roland Garros.’ To find myself again in the finals here is certainly a fantastic feeling because I had very bad moments of fear and problems.”

Henin-Hardenne’s comments were a reminder that while the French may regard Saturday as another day for their Mary, it will be a moment of redemption for both women.

American twins Bob and Mike Bryan moved through to the final of the men’s doubles on Thursday courtesy of a 6-3, 3-2 win over Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, who had to retire when Nestor sustained a wrist injury. The Bryans, who won the Roland Garros title in 2003, will take on Max Mirnyi and Jonas Bjorkman in Saturday’s final.

Forty-eight-year-old Martina Navratilova and her partner Leander Paes moved through to the final of the mixed doubles event courtesy of a straight-sets win over Australians Samantha Stosur and Paul Hanley.

///BACK