Pierce at her best was unplayable. If she had been able to produce that level of play much more frequently she'd have many more slams to her tally. Given her incredible talent she was quite an underachiever. On the other hand Arantxa was by far not as gifted but she maxed all her assets and fought hard and eventually had a better career than pierce.
Yep she could be ferocious but only on slower surfaces. She had time to get to the ball on clay and rebound but struggled more on fast hard and grass . Still a player of her caliber only reaching the QF or better of GS events 14 times is miserable . So inconsistent. ASV for example reached 35.
CK totally. I think ASV’s level of performance on a bad day was very good from 1989 to 1998. She was consistent and very hard to beat for anyone who wasn’t Graf or Seles. Pierce was unbeatable at her best but was terrible on a bad day. She had horrible losses to second tier players but could also crush top players on a good day.
I think this is generally true but there have been exceptions. Wimbledon was not her best surface but she reached an extremely high level on fast hard courts at times in her career. Look at her 4R and Qf matches at the US Open in 2005. And the Tourney in Cali she won that summer a few weeks prior. She looked as good there as she does here... I do agree tho that the slower surfaces did provide a bit of an advantage for her because it gave her more time to set up her strokes. It's interesting to compare her technique and style to Lindsay Davenport, they both hit the ball extremely hard but with somewhat different technique... Davenport's strokes (forehand in particular) were a little more flat compact where as Pierce a little bit bigger swing with a little bit more top spin which is why her strokes translated to the slower services. Both brilliant ball strikers though. Some of the winners in this video are breathtaking.
yeah i wouldnt say unplayable. She barely edged out Hingis and Seles at her best. Venus could hang with her as well. i would say when Mary is playing her best, she's a solid contender to win but it's never a sure thing.
Arantxa was always a gracious loser. Despite being flattened here winning only 1 game in 2 sets, she kissed her conquerer in both cheeks at the net. Classy.
Pierce in 2000 Hilton Head was like 1995 AO and 1994 FO. Barely lost any games all the way. Sanchez was out of her prime after 1998 but the fact that her semifinal against Martinez was actually decent tells how scarily Pierce hit here. The big actual loophole Pierce had was her messy footwork and lack of backhand defense, but she hit so dominantly here that only Venus or Davenport might have exploited her weakness.
On clay Davenport would have been smoked by Mary in this form. Davenport is not a clay courter. Venus in top form maybe, but definitely not in her early 2000 form, again especialy on clay.
True..Mary is unplayable when she hit top form. Steffi Graf is very skillful but her game is not all power, and her style of play opened doors for longer rallies, and vulnerable at times...unlike Mary...she can just hit winners and keep play short at will, when she is in her element. Somehow, she only managed to win 2 slams...despite her true ability.
Yeah amazing but she had been playing with a heavy sampras pro staff for ten years which is pretty impressive for a woman. Once she switched to a more modern racket she had even more power. Imagine how hard she might hit with one of these super powerful hollow rackets the players use today. Then again its not all about power and she might have lost some feel and touch
I'm not sure you can say it was "impressive" that Mary used the wilson pro staff. A lot of other women used it, including Chris Evert and Jennifer Capriati until she was 13 years old. Let's not forget - these women are professional athletes. They're not dainty grandmothers. They're plenty strong enough to use a racquet like that. The other main racquet or that generation was the Dunlop 200g and that had a similar heft. It was used by Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Virginia wade amongst others. Again, these women aren't weaklings. The racquets had a similar heft to the wooden ones that came immediately before them - and the women of the old generation were just fine with them.
