Pierce Upsets Injured Titlist

Tennis

Mary Pierce, her opponent weakened by neck spasms, spoiled Conchita Martinez’s bid for a fifth consecutive Italian Open title Sunday at Rome with a 6-4, 6-0 victory.

“It was easier than I expected,” Pierce said. “She got a little hurt… . It was kind of weird.”

After a 52-minute first set, Pierce wrapped up the second set in just 18 minutes, ending the Spaniard’s run of 24 straight wins on the clay at Italico.

Pierce, who had ousted No. 1 seed Monica Seles in the third round, played far from flawless tennis. But she was steady enough on a day when Martinez clearly was troubled by her injury.

Martinez, the No. 3 seed, said she felt a twinge in her neck early in the first set. She was treated by a trainer during most changeovers after the fifth game. Pierce won the next three games, and Martinez was unable to get back in the match.

Martinez’s ailment was reported as a cervical muscle spasm. She said she played in pain most of the way, and that after the score was tied 2-2 in the first set “I didn’t do anything.”

But she did play her doubles final, explaining “I have trouble when I serve, but you only serve every four games.”

That didn’t work out much better. Martinez and Patricia Tarabini of Argentina were beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Nicole Arendt of the United States and Manon Bollegraf of the Netherlands.

Pierce, the 10th seed, was playing in her third final this year. She has been trying to regain her form of 1995, when she won the Australian Open and rose to No. 3 in the world.

She is now No. 15 but will move up after this victory.

Pete Sampras, the world’s No. 1-ranked player, heads a field of the tour’s top talent in the $2.3 million men’s edition of the Italian Open, which begins today on the slow red surface that Sampras dreads.

For Sampras, especially, the clay court tournament is required preparation in his bid to capture the French Open and dispel any doubts about his ability to play on all surfaces. The French is the only Grand Slam played on clay and the only one he’s never won.

German Open

Andrei Medvedev, coming off back and shoulder injuries that have hampered his play for two years, beat Felix Mantilla 6-0, 6-4, 6-2 to capture his third German Open at Hamburg, Germany.

Medvedev won this tournament in 1994 and 1995, and was ranked as high as No. 4 after his first German Open victory. Then came the injuries and long layoffs.

Now the 22-year-old Ukrainian is coming back. He won last August in Long Island and the German Open was the 11th title of his career.

Medvedev joined Eddie Dibbs as the only three-time German Open champion in the open era.

Dibbs won in 1973, 1974 and 1976.