So Much For Fragile Persona Pierce Pulls Back Reins In Solving Sanchez Vicario

Mary Pierce pouted and shouted, cursed and screamed, bopped her forehead with her racket and flogged her thighs like a jockey riding a racehorse.

And this, she said, was one of her calmest days on court.

It certainly turned out to be her happiest, a big smile on her face at last as she won her first Grand Slam title Saturday with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the Australian Open final.

Pierce’s gift was always obvious, her fragile personality always suspect.

For all the hours she practiced, driven by her father from dawn to dusk since childhood, she had precious few tournament triumphs to show for it until now, when she struggled with her temperament and finally tamed it.

In winning the Australian without dropping a set, Pierce moved up from the No. 5 ranking to a career-high No. 3.

Born in Montreal, raised in Florida but playing for her mother’s native France, Pierce became the first French woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Francoise Durr took the French Open in 1967. No French woman had won the Australian Open.

The victory over Sanchez Vicario, who beat Pierce in straight sets in the French Open final last year, couldn’t have been sweeter.

“The difference is today, mentally, I was very calm and focused and I concentrated on every point,” said Pierce, who won $360,000. “At the French Open, I was very nervous. I think that final helped me a lot. I learned from it, so I wouldn’t do that again.

“It was important for me not to look at who was on the other side of the net. It was so weird. Even when I had two match points, I wasn’t nervous at all.”

Pierce, 20, had shown for years she had the talent in her blazing groundstrokes to be among the best in tennis, but her fragility in big matches always seemed to interfere. She worked hard to overcome that, switching coaches and getting away from the domination of her father, Jim Pierce, who was banned from WTA Tour events. But there were still times even in this match when she teetered emotionally.

Pierce called her coach, Nick Bollettieri, in Florida immediately after the match.

“We just both laughed,” Pierce said. “I told him I was so happy. I was a little shocked. I hadn’t realized it yet. He was very happy for me and proud. He said I deserved it. It was what I had worked for and to enjoy it.

“I just haven’t realized what has happened yet. I’m still reeling from it. It’s just so great. I’m sure I’m not going to forget that for the rest of my life.”

Pierce hadn’t won a tournament since 1993 and had only five victories in small events in her sixyear pro career.

Sanchez Vicario, a right-hander who was playing with tendinitis in her right arm, was on her heels at the baseline most of the match, unable to counter Pierce’s strong groundstrokes or outlast her in rallies when they sometimes exchanged more than 30 shots. Usually the steadier player, Sanchez Vicario whacked 30 unforced errors to Pierce’s 21 and had seven fewer winners.

But more than anything, it was Sanchez Vicario’s serve that failed her. She held serve only twice and lost the first point of every service game.

“I didn’t serve well enough, and she took advantage of that,” Sanchez Vicario said. “She takes more control than any other player. She puts a lot of pressure on you.

“This is my second final (here). Hopefully the third will be the lucky one,” said Sanchez Vicario, who won her second French Open and first U.S. Open last year after losing in the Australian final to Steffi Graf.

Sanchez Vicario, 23, could take some solace in knowing that her quest for No. 1 will be fulfilled in another week. She would have preferred to get it with a Grand Slam title, but she’ll have it handed to her as a result of Graf’s withdrawal Saturday from next week’s WTA Tour event in Tokyo. Sanchez Vicario is not playing in Tokyo, but the points Graf will lose are enough to put the Spaniard ahead and make her No. 1 on Feb. 6.

“I don’t think it’s a big consolation,” Sanchez Vicario said. “Being No. 1 is the result of all the matches throughout the year. I worked hard to be able to get there, and I’m very happy to be No. 1. It would be nicer if I would be able to win here.”

Pierce’s leap to No. 3 dropped Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez to No. 4.

The final started sloppily with service breaks in the first four games. Pierce double-faulted twice in the opening game and looked tense. She shouted at herself when she slapped a backhand 10 feet wide to fall behind love-40 in the third game, and complained when another backhand was called wide to cost her the game.

But in the fourth game, the longest and best of the match, Pierce recovered her composure to break Sanchez Vicario to 2-2 after a series of long and superb rallies that produced tennis at its finest. There were five deuces in that game and four break-point opportunities for Pierce, and she capitalized finally with a crosscourt forehand into the corner.

She celebrated that shot by smacking a ball hard onto the court, then held serve for the first time in the match.

From that moment on, Sanchez Vicario wore the frustrated look of a beaten player. Her only hope was the rain that threatened, a respite from the match that might have allowed her to regroup and perhaps cooled Pierce.

But despite the thunder, a day after the flood, no rain fell. Pierce broke her three more times in the second set and served out the match with a backhand winner on the final point after 1 hour, 25 minutes. That, at last, brought a big smile to Pierce’s face.