French Treat Mary Pierce More Like Marie Antoinette

The love affair between Mary Pierce and the French hit the rocks a long time ago, and Thursday it hit a new low, as the crowd unofficially filed separation papers in its dramatic way on another rainy day at Roland Garros.

Jeering, booing and whistling.

Was this any way to treat the Canadian-born, American-raised woman who was going to be the one to lead the renaissance of French women’s tennis?

Well, the 11th-seeded Pierce lost to 36th-ranked Magui Serna of Spain, 7-5, 6-2, in the second round at the French Open. And if that’s not enough of an explanation, Pierce did not lose in good form, blowing a 5-1 first-set lead.

And to lose ugly is not the French way. Losing ugly is like picking up the wrong fork for the appetizer around here.

“Sure, if I win, I’m the French Mary Pierce,” said Pierce, whose mother is French and who has represented France in international competition since 1990. “If I lose, I’m the French American. It’s been like that for about 10--not 10 years, but. . . .”

It only seems like 10 years.

“It’s not new,” Pierce said. “It’s not the first time. I can’t say it didn’t bother me or that it did. It’s just something you hear and that’s about it. It probably won’t be the last time, no matter what I do here.”

She has found friendlier audiences elsewhere, particularly in Australia. Pierce won the Australian Open in 1995, a year after she reached the French Open final. The 23-year-old has been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world but never quite made the push toward No. 1 that everyone expected.

“I’d say I get more support everywhere else in the world than here,” she said.

At least Pierce is dating someone who knows about hostile crowds, the Baltimore Orioles’ Roberto Alomar. He spit in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck late in the 1996 season and heard about it into 1997.

Serna was stunned at the reaction to Pierce. She was effective in letting Pierce make the unforced errors (32 in all) and unveiled a lethal drop shot off her backhand, winning the first set with that shot.

“When it was 5-2 in the second, and the crowd was crazy against her, I was like, ‘Wow, what was that?’ I mean, we’re in Paris, she’s from here, and the crowd is against her,” Serna said. “It was probably very difficult for her. . . . Just seeing the crowd against you must be very hard.”

There was a mild upset on the men’s side on a day in which matches started three hours late because of rainy weather and were halted again later on. Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist, ranked No. 19, defeated sixth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 4-6, 7-6 (12-10), 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, in 2 hours 50 minutes.

Kafelnikov won the French Open in 1996, but he has not been the same player this year. He has lacked consistency, winning only one tournament (indoors at London), and has lost to Jeff Tarango, Thomas Johansson, Hicham Arazi and Fernando Meligeni.

“Nothing happened, I cannot explain what is going on,” Kafelnikov said. “I just have to take it like a man. I cannot explain why, how, what is going on. “

He was moving along, seemingly in cruise control, until Enqvist fought his way into the match, staving off four set points in the second.

“If I would have won the second set, it might be a different story,” Kafelnikov said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Maybe the confidence is gone. If you don’t have the confidence, there is no way you can close out the match.”

The loss of Kafelnikov means that five of the top eight seeded players among the men are gone--and the second round hasn’t even been completed. The top three remaining are No. 3 Marcelo Rios, No. 4 Patrick Rafter and No. 8 Gustavo Kuerten.

Before Thursday’s matches, there were three American men remaining. By the end of the day, No. 11 Michael Chang was still in contention, and his second-round match against qualifier John van Lottum of the Netherlands never even started because of the weather.

And 20-year-old Jan-Michael Gambill managed to hang on against Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic before the second-round match was called at 4-4 in the third set because of darkness. Vacek took the first set, 6-4, and Gambill won the second, 6-2. The third American, Tarango, was blown out in 1 hour 40 minutes. Argentina’s Mariano Zabaleta, who took out No. 2 Petr Korda in a five-set first-round match, had no such trouble against Tarango in the second round, winning, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2.

Advancing among the top women in straight sets were No. 2 Lindsay Davenport, No. 4 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, No. 7 Conchita Martinez of Spain and No. 13 Anna Kournikova of Russia.

Unseeded Serena Williams, who needed three sets in her opening round, had no problems against American Corina Morariu, winning, 6-1, 6-0, in 49 minutes.

Williams spent the day waiting in her hotel room.

“I was going to go shopping, but I had to cancel that,” she said. “I was going to go to Champs-Elysees.”

What was she planning to buy?

“Nothing in particular,” she said. “Hopefully, I can stay away from the jewels.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s Featured Matches

MEN

Marcelo Rios (3) vs. Wayne Ferreira, Patrick Rafter (4) vs. Jason Stoltenberg, and Gustavo Kuerten (8) vs. Marat Safin. Also playing: Carlos Moya (12), Albert Costa (13), Alex Corretja (14), Felix Mantilla (15) and Alberto Berasategui (16).

WOMEN

Martina Hingis (1) vs. Karina Habsudova, Jana Novotna (3) vs. Elena Tatarkova, Monica Seles (6) vs. Barbara Schwartz, Venus Williams (8) vs. Alexia Dechaume-Balleret, Iva Majoli (10) vs. Natasha Zvereva, and Anna Kournikova (13) vs. Asa Carlsson.