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Mary forever It was
her life's dream,
which she only revealed
at the end of the tournament. Mary Pierce is the winner of the women's
Roland Garros 2000. It was a clear victory she really deserved, having
won over almost all the best world players. In fact, one expected the
usual famous names like Hingis, Davenport or Venus Williams to win,
but in the end it was Pierce who triumphed with her long plait and at
last a joyful expression. She was happy, thrilled and amazed by a success
she had been pursuing since the age of 10, when she moved from Montreal
to Paris; Pierce, given her not too good relationship with the French
public, had wisely decided not to reveal her ambition. Mary's adolescence
has not been certainly easy, being characterized by disorderliness and
other unpleasant experiences.
Her father is to be
blamed for that, a fanatic man who wanted at all costs his daughter
became a champion and even beat her in case she did not do what he wanted.
Jim Pierce got up to
all sorts of mischief, and he was even banned from the women's tournament,
having threatened with arms the bodyguards Mary had hired following
her mother's advice.
This family split occurred
again with French tennis fans, when the player decided not to represent
the country that adopted her in order to focus on her playing season.
But before that, "Mariolona" (as she is nicknamed, given her stocky
physique) had managed to give back a Slam tournament to women's French
tennis. It was 1995 and Aranchia Sanchez had easily beaten the year
before Mary in the final at Roland Garros, where Mary was even greeted
with hoots.
This time, thanks to
her victory in Australia over the Spanish player, a French player was
finally able to win again a prestigious trophy France did not win since
1967, when Françoise Durr won in Paris. Her coach, Mary had also fallen
in love with, should take the credit for this success. It is not a chance
that their swinging love affair also negatively influenced Mary's performance:
from a player who was
ready to beat Graf and Seles, Pierce ended up being considered a loose
cannon. After having gone through hard times, obsessively searching
for physical recovery, in the end Mary managed to reach the final in
Australia in 1997. This final might have confirmed her return and instead
saw the great success of Martina Hingis, who won her first Slam tournament.
Having lost another major chance, Mary went through another dark period,
which coincided with the decision not to join the French Federation
Cup, the women's Davis.
And thus some French
dailies started to consider her a Canadian rather than a French player,
preferring to exalt local players like Tauziat, Mauresmo, Testud or
Holard rather than the naturalized rebel living in Florida. And things
went this way until the recent success in Paris when the "Equipe" celebrated
with emphatic tones her triumph at Roland Garros 2000, which demonstrates
that it's the same the whole world over.
We cannot hide some
envy: we, too, would have liked to be in a quandary about how to headline
a similar success by one of our players. Yet, we cannot do without observing
how it is amusing and typical of the French the fact that they have
quickly "adopted" Pierce again. On the other hand, everybody knows that
it is French custom to nationalize everything, from words to people.
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