Things may be coming into focus for Mary Pierce and people who wonder why she fidgets and fiddles so much before every point she plays.
On Feb. 8, after a first-round loss in Tokyo, Pierce had laser eye surgery.
And last Friday, following a 6-3, 6-2 quarter-final win over French compatriot Nathalie Dechy at the WTA Tour event in Scottsdale, Ariz., Pierce, 25, talked about her improved vision. "It's amazing, sometimes I overrun the ball, I anticipate so quick now.
"The contact lenses were bothering me all the time. They got very dry, they would blur with the wind and I would get things in my eye."
Pierce's interminable series of mannerisms are legendary. They were parodied by British journalist Lynne Truss during Wimbledon last year:
"The Colin Montgomerie of tennis, [he, likewise, allows endless different expressions to flit across his countenance] Pierce performed fed up, wistful, stung by memory of deepest loss and wanting to be a tomato."
Many tennis fans hope Pierce's upgraded peepers will help reduce her twitchy histrionics. Apparently they didn't help much when she lost 6-4, 6-3 to world No. 1 Martina Hingis in Saturday's semi-finals.
Along with Anna Kournikova, who is engaged to hockey superstar Pavel Bure, Hingis, 19, has joined the sport romance crowd. She is dating Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Pavel Kubina.
According to an AFP wire story, Kubina, a 22-year-old Czech, said, "We're close friends. We've played tennis a few times and gone to movies and dinner."
Hingis's final in Scottsdale against Lindsay Davenport had to be postponed until this morning, due to rain.
In men's tour finals yesterday, Austrian Stefan Koubek defeated Spaniard Alex Calatrava 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in Delray Beach, Fla., while Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten downed Argentine Mariano Puerta 7-6 (3), 6-3 in Santiago, Chile.
"Guga" also won the doubles with compatriot Antonio Prieto, becoming the first player to accomplish that feat since 1998 (Czech Jiri Novak in Mexico City).
Sebastien Lareau of Montreal and Swede Jonas Bjorkman were beaten 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 by Czech Martin Damm and German David Prinosil in the doubles final in Copenhagen.
Andreas Vinciguerra, 19, won the all-Swedish singles final, 6-3, 7-6 (5) over veteran Magnus Larsson. The promising Vinciguerra, 19, has a Swedish mother and an Italian father who is a pizza maker.
Russian Marat Safin was the top seed in Copenhagen. In several reports last week he was reportedly ranked No. 121, which is his ranking in the ATP Tour's Champions Race, but he is No. 38 in the tour's newly named Entry System, formerly known as the rankings. The latter was responsible for his top seeding.
In 2000, the ATP Tour is publicizing the Champions Race, which is based on points accumulated from the start of the year. It believes the 52-week cycle rankings were confusing.
Two crucial tournament functions, entries and seedings, are still done using the Entry System.
For what it's worth, this observer firmly believes in the 52-week rolling rankings (Entry System), so that is the rankings system that will be used in this space.
An good example of the confusion caused by the Champions Race is the Scottsdale men's event, which begins today.
Greg Rusedski, No. 36 in the Champions Race after playing only two tournaments in 2000, is No. 18 in the Entry System/rankings.
Patrick Rafter, out with a shoulder problem since last September, had not played an event until last week and had no Champions Race points at all when the Scottsdale draw was done Saturday. But, at No. 17, he was one spot ahead of Rusedski in the Entry System.
That resulted in Rafter being the final seed (No. 8), and Rusedski not being seeded.
It turned out to be a big deal when Rusedski's name went into the hat with the other unseeded players and wound up being the final name pulled out, putting him on the draw sheet's second-to-last line. The name on the last line was none other than Pete Sampras, whom he will play in the first round tomorrow.
Top-seeded Andre Agassi opens against a qualifier. As for Sampras-Rusedski, Sampras leads their head-to-head 6-1, but the ex-Canadian won their last meeting in the final of the Paris Open in November, 1998.