With the French Open Tennis coming closer by the day, Mary Pierce former France tennis player has been shortlisted by the France Televisions to join their team of consultants at the Sports Department.
Pierce, who so far remains the last French player – both male and female – and the last woman to have won the Roland Garros in the year 2000 comes back once again to the sport, this time as a consultant.
The one time French Open winner was brought in to serve as a replacement for Amélie Mauresmo who is currently pregnant with her second child. Pierce will join Laurent Luyat as they intervene together on the terrace.
In 2015, Pierce became a member of the steering committee of the International Tennis Federation on the field side. In 2016, she was appointed by Yannick Noah as the deputy captain of the French team of the Fed Cup. Read more »
Mary Pierce’s countryman Gael Monfils has become such an injury prone player these days.
No player on the tour would have withdrawn from the middle of the matches as much as Monfils has done in the recent times.
In almost every second tournament, he does something to himself and goes down.
There was that same scene in Miami a couple of days ago when he could not survive a slide playing in Round no. 4 versus the Czech Republic International Tomas Berdych.
It did not seem to be that big an injury though the way Monfils talked about it later on, but, because of him being so injury prone, he might be denied the chance of playing in the Davis Cup this year.
Arnaud Clement, the man in charge of the Davis Cup team of France, might not want to gamble his inclusion for the tie versus Great Britain as there is no guarantee regarding his fitness.
Monfils’ numbers in the Davis Cup though are as good as anyone else. Who can forget his win over Roger Federer the previous year? What a great performance that was.
But, it’s hard not to worry about his fragile fitness.
Also, grass court tennis isn’t Monfils’ forte. Clement have to consider that as well.
It’s almost certain that the tie between Great Britain and France is going to take place at Queen’s club where the surface is quite grassy and quick. That might not be to the liking of Monfils. Read more »
It could have been curtains for Maria Sharapova in round no. 2 itself, there at Melbourne Park yesterday.
She had been pushed right to the walls by her compatriot Alexandra Panova.
Sharapova had got into a situation where she had a couple of match points to save in the third set.
Thankfully, she lifted her game just in time and bagged a few key points there to break her opponent twice and avoid what could have been a big embarrassment.
To come into the tournament as frontrunner and then, to go down to a player holding the 150th position in the world rankings, it would have been devastating for Sharapova. Read more »
France has beaten USA in a Hopman Cup tie by a close margin of 2-1. Now, they have a very good chance of achieving glory for the first time ever in the Hopman Cup. In their next tie, they will be taking on an out of form Spanish team. If they win that tie, they will qualify for the final.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was the stand out performer for France in their tie against USA. He performed brilliantly in both the singles and the mixed doubles and guided his team to victory.
The French team hadn’t made a good start to the tie as in the first singles match Alize Cornet had suffered a straight set defeat against the young sensation Sloane Stephens. But, Tsonga levelled things up by beating John Isner.
It all came down to the mixed doubles and Tsonga again rose to the occasion. He held his nerves and didn’t let the lesser experienced pair of Stephens and Isner pull off an upset. The match went all the way down to the wire with the third and final set going into the tie breaker, but, eventually, the outcome went in the favour of the French pair.
Tsonga’s record in the Hopman Cup in the last couple of years has been fantastic. He has featured in 5 matches in the tournament during that period and has ended up winning all of them.
Talking to the reporters after her team’s win against USA, Cornet said, “USA was probably the strongest side in the group, so, beating them has certainly given us satisfaction.”
“It had really got very tight at the end, but, thankfully, we pulled it off.”
This is the 20th time that the French team is participating in the Hopman Cup.
Marion Bartoli, the number one ranked French tennis player in the women’s circuit has every right to be furious with the captain of the French Fed Cup team Nicolas Escude for overlooking her for the match against Slovakia, according to some former and current French professional tennis players, who have all taken her side in this war of words between Bartoli and the France Tennis Federation as well as Escude. One of the most notable names who have come out in support of Bartoli is former world number three Mary Pierce.
According to the former two-time Grand Slam winner, Escude should not have let the personal problems come in the way of the team selection for such a prestigious competition as the Fed Cup. Instead, they should have sat down and solved the matter for the betterment of the French team and the sport in general in the country. Mary Pierce also went on to add that France will not have many problems negotiating past Slovakia without Bartoli but she also raised the question as to whether Escude would have had the guts to leave Bartoli out had their opponents been stronger such as the United States of America or Serbia and the likes.
Not only Pierce, another former French player who has taken the side of Bartoli in this debate is Arnaud Clement. He also added that his onetime Davis Cup team mate Nicolas Escude should know better than to leave out the most experienced player from the side and he hoped that this would not be repeated in the future and their problems off the court would be settled off it.
With the support that Bartoli is getting from Clement and Mary Pierce, it seems that round one of this debate has gone to her and it is worth seeing what Escude does for the next tie.
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July 27, 2010 11:28 am | 
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