/ 13 November 2005

Pierce, Mauresmo set up all-French showdown

Mary Pierce beat world number one Lindsay Davenport, and Amelie Mauresmo ousted defending champion Maria Sharapova on Saturday to set up an all-French final at the WTA Tour Championships.

Their semifinal victories insured the elite season-ending event will have a French champion for the first time.

”It’s amazing,” said Mauresmo, but added that neither player could afford to think about historical implications come Sunday.

”We’re going to put aside those aspects of the match, and just play our best tennis,” she said.

Pierce, the only player to emerge from round-robin play with a perfect 3-0 record, did just that on Saturday as she remained unbeaten with an impressive 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6) victory over Davenport.

Pierce blasted 40 winners — including 10 aces in a superb service effort — and had just 10 unforced errors.

”I like it,” Pierce said. ”I hope it continues that way.”

Mauresmo, playing in the semifinals of the championships for the third straight year, defeated 18-year-old Sharapova 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 to book her second meeting with Pierce in three days.

Pierce posted a three-set victory when they met in round-robin play on Friday night.

She picked up where she left off against Davenport, who quickly found herself in a 5-2 hole in the first set.

”She served so great, and hard when they were in. It was a great display — I could never get a read on where they were going,” Davenport said.

Gradually, however, Davenport responded to the challenge, saving one set point in the eighth game and breaking in the next as she took the set to a tiebreaker, which the French player seized with a service winner followed by a blistering forehand that skimmed the net cord.

”I definitely got off to a slow start,” Davenport said. ”Even when it was five-all, I felt lucky to be in the first set.”

Pierce saved the only three break points of the second set, all in the second game, as the two big-hitters took their battle to another tiebreaker.

”We each broke once the whole match, which is pretty crazy, since we’re both pretty strong returners,” Davenport said.

Having given herself a second match point with a deep forehand that Davenport could only blast into the net, Pierce took the match when Davenport sailed a forehand long in a rare miscue.

Pierce, a finalist at both the French Open and United States Open this year as well as the winner of two tier-one titles, gave herself a chance to cap a remarkable comeback season with the tour championships title in her first appearance in the prestigious event since 1999.

”I am very proud of myself for the year I have had, especially since Roland Garros,” Pierce said. ”There’s just one more match this year, and I’m going to give it everything that I have.”

Mauresmo had to rally after falling behind an early break against Sharapova, but as the first set wore on, the Russian began to feel some twinges of pain in the right shoulder injury that has dogged her for months.

She made four straight forehand errors and a double-fault to hand Mauresmo the tiebreaker.

”The tiebreak was just a big giveaway,” she said. ”From then on, it was downhill.”

Mauresmo said she didn’t know Sharapova was hurting.

”But maybe that’s why she hit a couple of double faults or didn’t manage to put her first serves in on some important points,” she said.

Even so, a few shaky moments from Mauresmo made it closer than it should have been at the end.

Serving for the match at 5-1 in the second, Mauresmo dropped her serve, and she wasted one match point against Sharapova’s serve in the next game before finally closing it out.

Pierce probably won’t let her get away with such lapses unscathed.

”She’s been playing unbelievably well,” Mauresmo said of her compatriot. ”The last few months she’s been consistent at the highest level.” — Sapa-AFP