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PIERCE MOVES ON BUT CAN'T
PLEASE ALL
One trophy does not make Mary
a Parisian princess
By
Alix Ramsay
Special to tennisreporters.net
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Fred
Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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FROM ROLAND GARROS –
They are a hard audience to please, these Roland
Garros types. The simple business of winning matches is not enough
for
them, oh no, you must win with style, with panache and with elan.
Better
still, you should be French and win with style, panache and elan.
It is
anything but easy.
Mary Pierce has spent most
of her professional career trying to make peace with what should
be her home crowd, all to no avail. If she won, she was French (provided,
of course, there was no one around with a stronger accent and a
more credible passport) and if she lost, she was American.
Finally, in 2000, she thought
she had cracked it: win the French Open for them and they are bound
to love you. They did, too, for a while but it did not last long.
A matter of months later she was booed off court at the Paris indoor
event after playing a pig of a match and losing early. They don't
forgive and they never forget, these French tennis crowds.
Thanks to a bad back and a
catalogue of other ailments, Mary was unable to
defend her title last year so her return to the Court Centrale on
Thursday was something of an emotional moment. She celebrated the
occasion with a 6-3, 6-1 walloping of Cristina Torrens Valero and
then did her bit for public relations with a huge smile, a big wave
and a lot of autograph signing. The crowd seemed to like that and
it was best to keep them on her side.
She was clad rather unwisely
in a little navy blue ensemble courtesy of Nike. It appeared to
be a little too little for comfort as there is more of Mary than
anyone can remember. Her figure could best be described as statuesque
and keeping all of it wrapped in the outfit was proving problematic.
There was a great deal of hitching up and hoiking down as the top
and the skirt kept trying to part company.
STILL THE SLUGGER
Underneath her outfit's exterior
it is still the same old Mary. She still moves with all the grace
of a wardrobe on rollers, she still absolutely crushes the ball
and she still hits winners and errors in equal measure. As for volleying,
she approaches the net with all the confidence of a hedgehog crossing
the motorway – it is a once in a lifetime experience and it
is bound to end in tears. And she is still absolutely barking mad,
God bless her.
"I don't feel like losing,"
she said, helpfully. "I always say that things hold meaning
in life, and now I feel healthy," she went on, making her thoughts
as clear as mud. Then again, she was being questioned in French
which is not her first language. There are days, after all, when
she struggles with English. So, did she have a message for press
or for the public? "No, not really," she said, smiling
benignly upon her people.
But, for all her foibles,
Mary is one nature's nice people. She batters the ball into submission
and sometimes remembers to likewise to her opponent, but she means
no one any harm. Then, just when it seems that she has the match
under control, her confidence evaporates and she is left as no more
than a collection of jangling nerves. In the past it has been enough
to give her a fit of the vapors and has scuppered her chances more
often than not. It used to drive the Parisians mad until finally
she admitted her failings to them.
"For the last two or
three years things have changed in my rapport with the public and
it's much more pleasant for me, I can tell you," she said.
"I think there was a problem on my side. I had to be more open
to the public, more willing to share all this with them. After all
people came to watch me and I should share that with them since
they were supporting me."
No one, least of all Mary,
knows how much more they will have to share with her at this particular
event. Her form this year has lurched from bad to worse with the
odd moment of mediocrity thrown in for good measure. She had her
criticisms of her play yesterday but, all things considered, she
was satisfied. "I won and for the time being this is what matters,"
she said. "I'm still in the tournament." And, for the
moment, at least, the good people of Paris seem quite pleased about
it.
Alix
Ramsay has been covering tennis for British national newspapers
for the past 12 years. She was tennis correspondent of The Times
for three years.
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