Analysing Mary's year

Hello friends!

Please don't take this badly... And I will write in English so everyone can follow (si les français ne comprennent pas quelque chose il faut me dire).

It is the end of the year so it is time to analyse Mary's performance in 2004... It wasn't brilliant I must say...

She had almost the same record win-losses as in 2003 (one more win and the same amount of losses), which is not good. Mary was supposed to be returning...

It is true that she won a tournament, the first one after RG 2000 and the first one in grass, but we must remember it was only a Tier III.

Other highlights, she made the finals of her first tournament in the Paris indoors Open in February, the fourth round of the US Open.

Pierce has beaten quality players like Venus Williams and Nadia Petrova at the Olympics and Maria Sharapova in the US Open, plus one of her nemesis, Paola Suarez, at Filderstadt.

But... There is a big but... Mary lost in a humiliating form to Akiko Morigami in Charleston, Virginia Ruano Pascual in Wimbledon, Gisela Dulko in San Diego, Sandra Mamic in Moscow, Fabiola Zuluaga in Zurich, Dally Randrianteffy in Luxembourg and Alina Jidkova in Québec. And, worst, some of this girls believe they earned their victory... Those are way too many losses to almost unknows in only one year. Plus, is seems Mary has lost her aura of respect of top player and Grand Slam winner.

It is true that the main characteristic in Mary is her hability to win a big tournament in one week and then lose to no one in the first round the following week. But it has happen several times this year.

I believe in her and I am almost sure she will win one more Grand Slam, but her mental strenght and game focus must no be of a newcomer on the tour but of a great champion she is.

If I was Mary I would skip the Fed Cup final this season, unless all the team would be in favour of her appearance, get my head together and star the year by winning the Aussie back...

Please don't feel this is a Pierce's demolition.

Cheers, and good luck Mary!

Hey no worries! :wavey: its a very nice thread.

I agree with what you have said, although I do think that 2004 was a better year for Mary than 2003. Missing the Australian Open was a bad decision.. Yes she came back strong in Paris, but didn't do anything special for the next 3 months. I hope Mary plays the AO next year. I also dont agree with Mary missing the Fed Cup part. I think she needs to be with the French team, she loves being a part of the Fed Cup and now that she doesn't have Sven/David, being with the French team will help her relax and enjoy. Fed Cup does bring out some of her best tennis. She doesn't need to play the singles, but just being with the team and practising with the other players will help her calm down. We know how much fun she has with Momo,Tati and Nath.

Look at those bad losses :eek: I'd also throw in Likhovtseva at Berlin.

Hope Mary will pick her game up for 2005. and who knows, she won a grandslam in 1995.. won another in 2000, so maybe she'll end up winning another in 2005. Time to end the 5 year drought! :bounce:

Ok, I agree with you to say that 2004 was better than 2003. But I feel worried about the end of the 2004 season. I mean that losing so many matches in few weeks is not good to begin the 2005 season with confidence. Definitely, the end of 2003 was really great and Mary made a good start in 2004. Let's hope... :angel:
I think that maybe Mary sould be very clear about her goals and motivation. For me, the main problem in 2004 was her motivation ; but I don't blame her! I have already say somewhere that I understand her lack of motivation sometimes, for many reasons. But to win a big tournament again, she has to play more, to be more regular, with constant motivation and results will come! :) :) :) Williams sisters are the proof that a player, even a good one, cannot come and go all the time during a season.
Anyway, I have no solutions ; I only hope that Mary will enjoy playing tennis during the whole 2005 season and show us how much she is motivated :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: (like sometimes this year).
Bravo pour 2004 Mary :kiss:

I agree: 2004 was slightly better than 2003, with some great highs, (namely winning a tournament on grass to complete her personal 'surface slam', beating Petrova, and Venus for the first time in six years at the Olympics, plus the great run at the US Open including the impressive scalp of Sharapova). But the lows definitely take the gloss off these highs to some degree, and the losses of the past month have been disgraceful, to be blunt. No way should Mary EVER lose to plays of the mediocre calibre of Randriantefy and Jidkova, two of the most average journeywoman on the tour), unless she is injured -and if she was, why did she keep playing? Exactly what is the coach situation now -do we know? A VERY disappointing end of season, to conclude, but enough high spots earlier to still feel optimistic about next year- providing Mary has some consistent coaching and support.