The 21st century
France · born Montreal, 1975 · right-handed · Australian and French Open champion, 2005 Wimbledon mixed doubles champion with Mahesh Bhupathi
All playersBack to the rankings
12-0
Sets won by Pierce and Bhupathi on the way to the 2005 Wimbledon mixed title
55 min
Length of the 2005 Wimbledon mixed final, won 6-4, 6-2
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Grass singles title, 's-Hertogenbosch 2004, completing titles on every surface
2
Wimbledon singles quarter-finals, 1996 and 2005
2
Grand Slam singles titles: Australian Open 1995, French Open 2000
Mary Caroline Pierce was born in Montreal on 15 January 1975 to a French mother and an American father, and grew up in Florida. She turned professional at 14 in 1989 and soon had a reputation as one of the hardest hitters in the women's game. Her father, Jim, coached her in her early years; his behaviour at tournaments led to a restraining order in 1993 and a WTA ban, and she was later coached by Nick Bollettieri and by her brother David. She played for France.
She reached the 1994 French Open final, won the 1995 Australian Open and rose to No. 3 in the world, and in 2000 won the French Open singles and, with Martina Hingis, the doubles. She helped France win the Fed Cup in 1997 and 2003. After a lean spell she won her first grass title at 's-Hertogenbosch in June 2004, and in 2005, at 30, had one of her best seasons: finals at the French Open, the US Open and the WTA Championships, a Wimbledon singles quarter-final and the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi of India.
In October 2006, at Linz, she ruptured a knee ligament, an injury that effectively ended her career. She later settled in Mauritius, where she coaches, joined the ITF Board of Directors as an athlete representative in 2015 and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2019.
| Wimbledon mixed 2005 | Unseeded with Mahesh Bhupathi; beat the third seeds Jonas Björkman and Lisa Raymond 7-5, 6-1 in the semi-final and Paul Hanley and Tatiana Perebiynis 6-4, 6-2 in a 55-minute final on Centre Court, both on the final Sunday. They won all 12 sets they played, 75 games to 41, one of the few mixed pairs to win the title without dropping a set |
|---|---|
| 's-Hertogenbosch 2004 | Seeded third; beat Klára Koukalová 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 in the final for her 16th career title, her first since the 2000 French Open and her first on grass |
| Wimbledon singles | Quarter-finals in 1996 and 2005; in 2005 she lost to Venus Williams, the eventual champion, after a second-set tiebreak of 22 points |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Mixed doubles | with Mahesh Bhupathi |
| 's-Hertogenbosch (Rosmalen) | ||
| 2004 | Women's singles Rosmalen Grass Court Championships | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"I was so thrilled that I kept the trophy on my night stand next to my bed"
The person behind the player.
Florida, 1989
Born in Montreal to a French mother and an American father and raised in Florida, she turned professional at 14 in 1989, at the time the youngest American to do so. She would play her whole career for France.
Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame1993
Her father, Jim, coached her as a teenager. The Hall of Fame describes his coaching as excessively demanding and at times inappropriate; in 1993 she obtained a restraining order against him and the WTA banned him from her tournaments. In later years father and daughter were reconciled.
Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame; Wikipedia's-Hertogenbosch, 2004
Her win over Klára Koukalová in June 2004 was her first title since the 2000 French Open and her first on grass, which gave her titles on every surface over her career.
Source: Tennis.comWimbledon, 2005
She had nearly partnered Bhupathi before, and in 2005 it finally came together. "Mahesh was more experienced in the doubles circuit and I wouldn't have missed a chance to play with him," she said, adding that "his sense of humour and laidback approach would calm me down in tense scenarios". After the win she kept the trophy beside her bed.
Source: Deccan HeraldMauritius
Looking back for her Hall of Fame induction, she said: "The more on the line, the more pressure, the more stress, I loved those matches the most." She became a Christian in March 2000, which she calls the turning point of her life, and has lived and coached in Mauritius for more than a decade.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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