1. Home
2. 10

FAMOUS TENNIS PLAYER

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 7/4/2020 7:37:32 AM

Mary Pierce

Mary Caroline Pierce (born 15 January 1975) is a retired tennis professional who represented France internationally in team competitions and the Olympics. She was born in Canada to an American father and a French mother, and holds citizenship of all three countries. Pierce won four Grand Slam titles: two in singles, one in doubles and one in mixed doubles. She reached six Grand Slam singles finals, most recently at the US Open and French Open in 2005. Her Grand Slam singles titles came at the 1995 Australian Open and the 2000 French Open; Pierce is the last French player, male or female, to win the latter title. She won the doubles event at the 2000 French Open with Martina Hingis as her partner, and reached an additional Grand Slam women's doubles final at the 2000 Australian Open, also partnering Hingis. She also won the mixed doubles event at the 2005 Wimbledon Championships, partnered with Mahesh Bhupathi. Pierce won 18 WTA singles titles and 10 WTA doubles titles, including five Tier I singles events. She also twice reached the final of the season-ending WTA Tour Championships. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2019. Personal life Mary Pierce was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Yannick Adjaj and Jim Pierce. Her mother is French and her father American, qualifying Pierce for citizenship in all three countries. She was raised in the United States and represented France in international tennis competitions. She speaks English and French fluently, and lives in Mauritius as of May 2019. Pierce was briefly engaged to baseball player Roberto Alomar in 1999 and later to Air France pilot David Emmanuel Ades, but broke off both engagements. Pierce had a difficult relationship with her father, who had developed a reputation as an abusive tennis father in the early stages of Pierce's career. Pierce refused to speak with him for a while and even employed two bodyguards to keep him at bay, but the two eventually reconciled sometime after she retired from active professional tennis. Pierce is a born again Christian. After a loss in early months of 2000 (before the French Open which she would win), she said she felt "empty and miserable", but then "I gave my life to Jesus and was born again... things in me changed instantly." Pierce also credits this change in spiritual direction to her pre-existing friendship with another tennis pro, Linda Wild.