MARY Pierce is a strange creature. At times she plays with a classical elegance, at others she is utterly ungainly. That contradiction surely stems from mental uncertainty, for throughout her career she has played some world-class tennis while wearing an expression which betrays a complete lack of belief in her ability to do so. It is as if the mind of a gazelle were transplanted into the body of an ox: the Frenchwoman knows she has the physical power, but is less than comfortable with it.
That discomfort was to the fore in Pierce’s less-than-convincing first-round win over Alicia Molik, but yesterday, faced with a more familiar opponent, compatriot Sandrine Testud, she put in an altogether more solid show to eliminate the most highly-
ranked seed to fall, beating No 8 seed Testud 6-3, 6-4.
The result was not wholly unexpected, as Pierce had only lost to her compatriot once in their previous six meetings. But, by the same token, nothing is completely predictable when it comes to Pierce, for whom bottling is such a common experience she would be better off in the drinks business.
Knowing her opponent’s frailty, Testud elected to receive after winning the toss, but the tactic backfired. Pierce held her serve, broke her opponent, then held again for a 3-0 lead.
In the process, it was Testud who became rattled, partly by a couple of erroneous decisions from the line judges, partly because Pierce was varying her own game nicely, employing a drop shot to frustrating effect.
Encouraged by her bright start, Pierce was untroubled on her serve for the rest of the set, which she won 6-3. The first two games of the second set went with serve, but then Pierce broke again, and, maintaining an uncharacteristic consistency, held on to take the set 6-3.
She had double-faulted just once, and had allowed Testud not a single break-point. Testud may only be at the top of the third division at this Wimbledon - the top three being Division 1, a rung or two ahead of seeds 4-7 - but such statistics have to give Pierce’s self-belief a much-needed boost.
What is more, she does not have too much to fear in her half of the draw. Her next opponent is unheralded American Laura Granville and only after that will she probably have to play another seed - either another Frenchwoman in Amelie Mauresmo, or the promising young Russian Anastasia Myskina.
While Testud was the biggest scalp of the women’s singles so far, Kveta Hrdlickova almost snatched another in Jelena Dokic. The Czech woman took the No 7 to three sets out on Court 18, coming back well after losing the first set without winning a game. Dokic eventually prevailed 6-0, 4-6, 8-6 to set up a third-round meeting with Nathalie Dechy of France, the No 25 seed.
Back in Pierce’s quarter of the draw, another seed to fall was the No 13, Meghann Shaughnessy. The American lost 7-5, 6-3 to Holland’s Miriam Oremans.
The other top-16 seed to go out was Iroda Tulyaganova, the No 14. She lost 6-3, 6-1 to the experienced Chanda Rubin of the USA, whose next opponent is the No 21 seed, Tatiana Panova.
But all these results are just minor tremors, and the women’s tournament has yet to be subjected to the seismic upsets which were witnessed in the men’s singles yesterday. The two big guns in action, Jennifer Capriati and Serena Williams, went through to the third round with little trouble.
Not that Williams was terribly happy with the way she had played in disposing of Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-3. "Actually, I wasn’t pleased at all with my game today," she said later. "It was a little windy. I don’t think I was focused enough. Maybe my mind was too many places."
Maybe, some brave soul in the press conference room suggested, her mind was more on all those little trinkets Serena likes to wear in her hair. Maybe ... and a trepidatious hush fell over the room at this point, as the intrepid questioner plodded on … it was time to cut down on the accessories?
Serena batted the ludicrous assertion aside. "Accessorize, accessorize, accessorize," she said with scant fear of contradiction, mainly as we all knew by this point she was heading off on her own fearless trip into Gibberish Land. "You can never have too many accessories."
She was then asked if she found it "confining" that she had to wear white, at which point this observer found it confining to be in the same room as such crappy questions and left.
Capriati, the No 3 seed, did not feel too confined by Marta Marrero on Centre Court, winning 6-2, 6-1. In this form, she is unlikely to be more noticeably troubled by her next opponent, the No 26 seed Daja Bedanova.
Results over the first days have suggested that all but the top seeds are extremely vulnerable. Certainly, when you are playing someone in the lower reaches of the 32, you need not be too afraid, and that is the position in which Elena Baltacha will find herself this afternoon.
Baltacha, the only British woman left in the singles, meets Amanda Coetzer, the No 32 seed. The Briton is the best part of a foot taller than the South African, but is very aware of Coetzer’s strengths.
"She’s very quick, got great feet," Baltacha said. "She’s going to get my best shots back, and I’ll just have to keep playing my game and stay aggressive."
Hopefully someone somewhere is giving Mary Pierce exactly the same advice.
