Tennis Wimbledon: Pierce's array of grand gestures

Wimbledon 99: Preening Frenchwoman uses physical prowess to sweep past Grande

THIS HAS not been a great week for photojournalism. First there was the nonsense about Prince William's head. And now there is the business of Mary Pierce's shoulders.

At a minute or two before noon yesterday, Mary Pierce removed her cardigan. For Pierce, this pre-match unveiling has always been an important part of the show. Who could forget that sultry Monday afternoon at the Stade Roland-Garros, three or four years ago, when she slowly disrobed to reveal a black dress with chalk-stripes, strapless and cut startingly low?

But that was a matter of pure physical display, the sort of thing Pierce seems to relish more than most of her contemporaries. Yesterday's unveiling, prefacing her match against Rita Grande, had an entirely different meaning. For most of those clustered around the court, it was their first chance to examine the effect of creatine on the human body.

A dietary supplement that aids recovery in training, creatine is a sort of legal steroid. Rugby players and racing cyclists are big fans of it, and so is Pierce. "It helps to rebuild the muscle tissues and the fibres you tear a little bit," she told journalists during this year's French Open. "It gives you a little bit of extra energy that you feel like maybe you don't have, so you can push yourself a little more."

The fuss arose when Pierce and her fellow Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo appeared at the start of this season with significantly enhanced musculature. In the case of the 19-year-old Mauresmo, who is not at Wimbledon, the interest was stoked by the presence of her girlfriend at the Australian Open. With Anna Kournikova at one end of the spectrum and a teenage lesbian bodybuilder at the other, the tabloids were enjoying a Grand Slam of their own.

Juxtaposed with pictures of the authentically beefy Mauresmo in the many instant articles on the new breed of pumped-up woman tennis player was a new photograph of Pierce. It showed her on the attack, swinging into a two-fisted backhand, her face grimacing and her shoulders and biceps massively bunched. She looked, not to put too fine a point on it, like a runaway truck.

So it was a bit of a relief when she removed her cardy yesterday and revealed the unmistakeable upper structure of a woman. A fraction thicker around the upper arms, perhaps, but no more. A formidable embonpoint, for sure, but Pierce-watchers would find nothing new there.

Her opponent did not stoop to the tactic employed by Billie Jean King when facing the similarly well-endowed Ann Jones. "Ladies," King once wrote, "here is a hint when you're playing an opponent with big boobs: bring her to the net and make her hit backhand volleys. `I've got to hit over them or under them, but I can't hit through them,' Ann used to moan to me." Instead Grande, a slender Neapolitan, currently ranked No 56 in the world, chose to counter Pierce's assets by trying to make her bend, feeding her soft, sliced backhands that died on the grass.

They had met three times before, the first occasion as far back as 1990, when they were both 14. Pierce had won all those encounters, and there were no surprises yesterday. "She sliced a lot in the beginning," Pierce observed. "That's her game. And then in the second set she started playing better - hitting the ball harder, being more aggressive, hitting over her backhand."

It worked a little better, but not well enough. Pierce took the first set 6-1 and the second 6-3, which reflected the improvement in Grande's game once her original tactic had been abandoned. Yet the world No 7 was never seriously inconvenienced, and the occasional scowl or imperious toss of the long blonde plait looked less like a response to the problems of the moment than a rehearsal for more serious obstacles to come.

There never was a more self-conscious tennis player than Pierce, who behaves as though she imagines that the world is hanging on her every gesture. It can only make it harder for her to concentrate on her strengths and probably explains why, at the age of 24, she has only one Grand Slam win - the Australian Open of 1995 - to show for her efforts. Beneath the posing lies a fragile mentality that has betrayed her too often.

After yesterday's match she was keen to emphasise her pleasure in being at Wimbledon, where her debut, scheduled for 1994, was postponed by the widely publicised dispute with her notorious father. "I didn't enjoy the grass courts at all in the beginning," she said, "I think that the more I'm playing on it, the more I'm getting used to it and the more I learn. And then I start having fun."

For her, playing on grass means learning to relax. "You have to be patient, in the sense that anything can happen. Don't have any expectations. Just be ready for anything. It's harder to win if you're playing badly, because it goes by so fast. If you hit the wrong shot, you can lose the point very easily. So you try to be more relaxed, and to let whatever happens happen. But I've also learnt that grass suits my game very well. I can take advantage of my shots and come to the net and try to be aggressive. I think I've prepared well for this tournament. I've been working hard and I feel good."

Not that you would have guessed it when she failed to take advantage of a break point in the seventh game of the second set. As Grande brought off a rare pass, the blonde plait swished, the mouth pursed, and Pierce stalked back to the chair like Marie Antoinette heading for the guillotine. The shoulders may not be quite as advertised, but there will be no lack of drama as long as this particular queen is still around.