No one gave her much of a chance when she arrived in Paris, but she swept through the first four rounds, beat down Monica Seles in the quarters after losing the opening set and then conjured up the perfect game plan for Martina Hingis:
Say five Hail Marys and slam another backhand.
Resurrected by a higher sense of commitment, poker-faced Mary Pierce blazed into the French Open final Thursday with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 win over top-seeded Hingis. Pierce will play Conchita Martinez on Saturday, hoping to become the first French woman since Francoise Durr in 1967 to win the singles title at Roland Garros.
Martinez, seeded fifth, made the final by blasting No. 8 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario off the court 6-1, 6-2 in an astonishingly one-sided match.
An hour after Pierce’s momentous win, Parisians were still in heaven, and Pierce was still in the trainer’s room, getting intravenous feeding to ward off what might have become a full-body cramping.
“I never had cramps before–first time in my life,” Pierce said. “It just came all of a sudden at 4-2 in the third set. I hit a backhand and almost fell to the ground with a cramp in my left calf. And a second time. I won that point, but I don’t know how.”
It took her more than two hours after her match to meet with reporters. She spent an hour walking to keep her body from going into convulsions and then took a couple of intravenous feedings.
Hingis, in the meantime, showed up for her postmatch news conference with red eyes, suggesting she shed some tears in the locker room. That was, at least, more discreet than last year, when she cried on court after Steffi Graf whipped her in the final.
The Paris crowd hasn’t completely forgiven her for her boorish behavior in that match. Every time Hingis walked up to inspect a ball mark that was called in Pierce’s favor, scattered boos and whistles reigned down on the court.
It was a day of amazing turnarounds. Sanchez-Vicario and Hingis both had beaten their opponents seven straight times. Sanchez-Vicario was 13-3 lifetime over Martinez. Hingis had won 10 of 15 from Pierce.
In the final game, with Hingis serving at 15-all, Pierce backpedaled to hit a deep backhand and somehow managed to get a full shoulder turn on a zinging crosscourt that got her out of a defensive hole and helped her win the point.
Three points later, on the eighth stroke of a tense final rally, Pierce drove another lethal backhand up the line from deep in the corner, and Hingis, just a shade late getting there, yanked her forehand crosscourt and the ball settled in the doubles alley.
Pierce erupted and the 16,000 on the Court Centrale celebrated with her.
