| | Associated Press
PARIS -- Mary Pierce was born in Canada, lives in Florida,
speaks with an American accent and dates a baseball player.
No matter. She considers herself French, and she basked in the
glow of a nation Saturday after beating Spaniard Conchita Martinez
6-2, 7-5 for the French Open women's title.
Pierce is a French citizen because her mother was born in
France. And that makes her the first Frenchwoman since Francoise
Durr in 1967 to win the title at Roland Garros.
Pierce, whose only other Grand Slam title came at the 1995
Australian Open, accepted her trophy from Martina Navratilova as
the capacity crowd of 15,000 roared. Durr then kissed Pierce on
both cheeks, and the two champions hugged.
"I'll try not to cry," Pierce told the fans in French. "I am
very moved. I never thought I would win it. It's my dream that has
become reality. It's really unbelievable to have done it here in
Paris."
In English, Pierce thanked her family and her fiance, Cleveland
Indians second baseman Roberto Alomar.
"I'm really happy for her," Alomar said after batting practice
in Cleveland before the Indians played the Cincinnati Reds. "After
all that she's been through, it's great. She's worked hard and
she's come a long way."
The 25-year-old Pierce has had a strained relationship in the
past with French fans, sometimes drawing jeers for lackluster play.
But they warmly embraced her this year, and they were firmly in her
corner Saturday despite some nervous moments and missed chances.
The partisan crowd included the prime minister of France, the
sports minister, the mayor of Paris and current and former French
athletes, including Durr, 57.
Durr won her only Grand Slam title at Roland Garros. How did she
compare her game to Pierce's?
"She has a lot less tics and nervousness," Durr said. "I
think we're going to see her for a long time."
|  | | Conchita Martinez played in her first French Open final Saturday. |
The crowd support may have made the difference in a tight second
set. After starting the match slowly, Martinez held serve for leads
of 4-3 and 5-4. But at 5-5, Pierce reached break point with a
sharply angled forehand pass, then put away an overhead for a 6-5
lead.
Fighting nerves by exhaling deeply, Pierce squandered two
championship points in the next game. But when Martinez bounced a
forehand return into the net on the third championship point,
Pierce had the title she wanted most.
She raised both arms and grinned, then bit her lower lip as if
fighting back tears and buried her head in a towel.
"It was a very difficult match for me, especially the second
set," Pierce said. "If it had gone to a third set, I don't know
what would have happened."
The sixth-seeded Pierce earned $575,000. Martinez, seeded fifth,
received $287,500.
In the men's final Sunday, fifth-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of
Brazil will try for his second French Open title against
third-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden.
Although the focus in the women's final was on Pierce, it was
Martinez who looked tight and unsure at the outset. After the
Spaniard struggled to hold serve in the first game, Pierce took
charge, winning 13 of the next 14 points and five consecutive
games.
But Pierce began to show signs of nerves, with more errors
creeping into her groundstrokes. After finally closing out the
first set on the fifth set point, she fell behind 2-0 in the second
set.
Then Pierce's shots began finding the corners again, and she
resumed coming to the net, keeping Martinez on the defensive.
Pierce barely survived the semifinals, cramping from dehydration
late in her match against top-seeded Martina Hingis. She caught a
break in the final because the weather was cool and hazy, and she
seemed fresh at the finish of the 1-hour, 52-minute match.
"She played very well," said Martinez, playing in her first
French Open final. "I started playing very badly. I was very
nervous. I could not put her under pressure."
The men's final may be short on star power, but it features a
budding rivalry between the hottest players on the men's tour.
Norman, trying to emerge from the shadow of Swedish Grand Slam
champions Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg, will be
playing in his major final. Kuerten, the gangly Brazilian nicknamed
"Guga," won the French Open in 1997.
They'll meet on clay for the third time since early May. Norman
beat Kuerten in the final at Rome, and Kuerten avenged the loss the
following week in the quarterfinals at Hamburg.
The third-seeded Norman is 41-11 this year, while the
fifth-seeded Kuerten is 31-6 since late February. They're ranked
1-2 in this year's ATP rankings race, and each has won two
tournaments in 2000.
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 Mary Pierce fulfills her dream of winning the French Open.
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