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Pierce picks up the pieces

From Tawfiq Aziz Khan
WIMBLEDON, June 29: Mary Pierce, who was seeded number five in the women's singles, was sent packing by compatriot Nathalie Tauziat at the Centre Court Wednesday. This was Pierces' first appearance at the historic Centre Court before a full house. But her match against the 28-year-old sea soned campaigner turned out to be a nightmare for the 20-year-old world number five, with the exit of Pierce much of the glamour of the ladies singles has disappeared and the rookies who have odds of 19 tc < ne in favour of Pierce must be scratching their heads The five feet five inches Tauziat was exceptionally alert and steady without being flashy and managed to get her first service in more often than not because she knew her weak second service would be perfect cannon fo dder for the hard-hitting Pier ce. Her court craft was superb and her return of service was flawless. She won the first set having broken early in the set and it was over in 35 minutes at 6-4. Pieice showed some resilience in the second and got some vital break points to snap up the second at 6-3.
Tauziat held her service and broke Pierce twice and final, won the set 61 and the whole match was over in 102 minutes Pierce was absolutely
out of sorts, made too many unforced errors, moved leisurely across the court and most of the time faltered with her first serve. Tauziat, number 11 in the world, deserved to win and she did it in superb style. In her interview after the match Mary Pierce highly praised Tauziat for the game. In her interview she said replying to a question "What went wrong? T can't really say. A lot went wrong. Nathalie is a great player on grass. I think she has more experience than I do and 1 think she just played a really good match and you know, and I don't think I moved as well as 1 could hav? and I did not make enough first serve because she attacked well on my second serves, but other than that, nothing really."' Did the Centre Court get to you? Mary replied "A little bit in the beginning I was a bit nervous because I never played on it before and I didn't get to practise on it either. So It's very new to me, so it took meanwhile to get used to it.
Q. What was it about the Centre Court — the atmosphere, the history of it — what was it ?
Ans.' I think everything -you know everything altogether. It's a weired feeling because it's very open, and you have to really concentrate just to stay focussed and you know then after the first'
set I was used to it but at the beginning it was a little bit hard. " When Mary Pierce appeared in the interview room she was looking absolutely fresh but visibly shaken. She managed a few dry smiles though it was obvious that she was not enjoying herself.
Q. Did you think you were going to win when you got to one set all?
Ans: I never thought I was going to win, I never thought I was going to lose. I est tried to keep playing the st points I could?"
There was lot of interests in the private life of Mary Pierce in the press interview room. She was asked questions about her boyfriend before which she parried diplomatically but yesterday also one of the journalists asked her, "Does it help the fact that your boyfriend is a tennis player and you can talk about these things? Pierce answered "Is he my boyfriend (she meant her coach)"?
Q. That's what we heard, the possibility that your boyfriend is a tennis player or enjoys tennis ?
Ans. Not at all. '
Q. May be he doesn't play tennis?
Ans. May be I don't have a boyfriend.
Mary Pierce concluded the interview on a happy note expressing her hope that someday she is going to play better and win the championship.