Jim Pierce Sets The Record Straight To Andrew Miller

No skin off my back, I don’t think I wrote anything so controversial, and it’s just a little bit unnerving to have someone respond to vehemently to a small note on a tennis web site, especially to someone who Mr. Pierce considers “a nobody”, which is fine with me – apparently I am a nobody who deserves a page long explanation. I hope other players respond to my comments by playing, let’s say, harder at Wimbledon or something like that. I am not a journalist – I am a mere fan and I have seen Mary play in person, and she certainly won all of our hearts, and there’s no reason for me to belittle the obviously enormous contribution of her family, especially her father. Mr. Pierce is welcome to read also how I believe Mary belongs in the hall of fame. But let’s continue here.

Here’s what Mary said in September 2005, which is pretty great and points to a pretty amazing thing. Coming from a family myself that has had some fairly brutal events (not sure how many other people have seen their families break apart – no doubt many, but let’s just say it’s excruciating and leave it at that), I am always glad to see things work out for people.

September 2005:
Q. We’ve heard that you’ve reconciled with your father. Is that something that was important to you, as well?

MARY PIERCE: Very important to me. I mean, that’s been years now. It’s nothing new. You know, that’s just very, very important. I think, you know, after my relationship with God, then comes my family, and then my friends. You know, it’s such an important thing in life. It just creates such a balance. You know, those relationships I think in life is what it’s all about.

Q. What is it like to have him back watching you practice? You spoke the other day about your brother being there, Nick coming on court as an adviser?

MARY PIERCE: It’s fun. He’s funny. He always comes and laughs and jokes and tells jokes, tells stories. Just loves to watch me play and practice. You know, just always telling me how good I am, how amazing it is what I do every day, to be able to do it, to be training as hard as I do. Yeah, it’s just nice.

—

Nice statement from Mary and a very nice acknowledgement of Mr. Pierce’s role.

September 2004, Sports Illustrated, L. Jon Wertheim:

“For all the drama and melodrama that have visited her career, Pierce has always been among the sport’s best pure ball strikers. She has reunited with her younger brother, David–who coached her in 2000–and is confident that she still has a few lines to add to her tennis dossier.”

Now that says that David coached her in 2000.

June 2010, Los Angeles Times, Lisa Dillon before the French Open final

“Pierce, who leads the series against Martinez, 10-6, has talked about the benefit of being coached by her brother David, and has been open about her renewed faith in God. She wondered how the French public would treat her when things got difficult and was relieved to receive support.

“It is not at all a tournament like any other,” Pierce said. “It is impossible [to compare]. I’m playing here in France. The public is behind me. My family is watching me. My friends are watching me. It is something exceptional for me.”

—

Now that also says that Mary was coached by David.

And what about June 11, 2000 – when Mary won it, what did she say then?

Los Angeles Times

“As recently as last year, Pierce’s strategy seemed to be to hit the ball harder and harder. If that didn’t work, she tried to hit it even harder. Sometimes it worked. She had two match points against Lindsay Davenport at the U.S. Open last year before succumbing in the quarterfinals.

Other times, her strategy exploded.

Which is why she reached out to her younger brother, David, days before a hard-court tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., last winter. She called him in London and asked him to coach her.

“She called me in my apartment and asked me if I would like to come to Arizona, which was starting that Monday. It was a Friday,” David Pierce said, smiling. “She asked me if I would like to give it a try.

“In life it takes a while, we’re both young. I’m only 24. It takes a long time to get to know yourself, to become an adult. Especially to coach somebody. It took a little bit of time before we put ourselves together.”

Said Pierce: “He’s been fantastic. To put up with me every day, taking care of me. He’s very patient and understanding. We get along great. We have a lot of fun.

“There’s nothing better than having your own brother there with you, supporting you, that you can trust, have confidence in, that loves you and just wants the best for you.”

His influence has been obvious. Pierce used the whole court against Martinez, pulling her wide with short, angled ground strokes. The old Pierce never would have dreamed of using a drop shot.

“Her game has changed a lot because she is using the court a lot better,” Durr said. “Before she was trying to hit the ball as hard as possible, not building up the point. She’s more technical on the court. I have the impression she watches her opponent a lot better. Before it was herself, her own game and she was not taking care of her opponent.”

Yet again, this claims that Mary was coached by David during the French Open final.

So obviously, Mr. Pierce is a great coach – he knows how to train players. Given Mary’s technical excellence, and obviously that of son David, he is indeed a fine teacher of the game. But when it comes to dealing with people who “know nothing” (even when they prove that maybe they know something? I mean check the record here – the scoreboard says that David Pierce coached Mary to the title, right?) then he deliberately goes after a “nothing” like me.

Sorry, I earned an apology on this one. Mr. Pierce was barred from tennis tournaments for real reasons relating to his relationship with people who werent related, and that affects people. He certainly knows how to make other people feel bad, even when they apparently did nothing wrong (and if they are nothing, maybe Mr. Pierce should rethink that one too, maybe they are something and know something?). As Maya Angelou once said, and you can take this for what it’s worth Pierce,

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Andrew.

Hi everyone, no doubt Mr. Pierce knows tennis inside out, and his omission from a lot of reporting from the past is no doubt unfair – even comments from no-nothings like me. But I won’t put up with bullying – that’s where I think we all draw the invisible line in the sand. It’s mis-directed and abuse comes in more than one form, and verbal is one of them (just a reminder).

I’m sure Mr. Pierce’s “anger” was directed at the line, from me and now erroneous, that the brother “prepared Mary” to take the French, where in reading Pierce’s response it’s clear Mr. Pierce played a huge role in preparation – from what he writes he made sure Mary was absolutely prepared. So – Mr. Pierce certainly revealed more of the story behind how Mary arrived to Paris ready in the year 2000, and for some time now here on TP as a commenter (know nothing) I’ve written that I think it takes a great support team for a player to win – it’s not just them vs. the elements, it’s a player’s support team – their family, their coach (if they are not family), their trainer, their friends, etc. You see the Djokovics, the Agassis, Blakes, Nadals, etc – they all have a group of people in the background doing everything so that the player has the best chance every tournament (or at least at some of the big ones). No player wins alone.

So that would be my bad in terms of the preparation comment I made – when Mr. Pierce knows the hard work that he put into ensuring his daughter had a more than good chance to take Paris in 2000. It’s probably best to refer back to L. Jon Wertheim’s June 19, 2000 article in Sports Illustrated to match up all the roles. Wertheim makes two things clear: Mr. Pierce prepared his daughter (probably on the technical side and the stamina side) and her brother David Pierce coached her to the title. It’s nice to see when teamwork works out (I am a huge fan).

Mr. Pierce and Training in 2000:

“They had a rapprochement of sorts in February when she asked him to come to her house, in Bradenton, Fla., and help her train. Mary won’t discuss the relationship with reporters, but she thanked Jim in her winner’s speech in Paris. On the other hand, she has yet to ask the WTA tour to relax the rule requiring Jim to submit a written notice before he attends a tournament. “She doesn’t want to cut him off,” says a source close to Mary, “but the relationship will be on her terms.”

Mary Pierce’s relationship with Brother:

Pierce’s recent ascent also coincides with her having retained her 24-year-old brother, David, as a coach. On Feb. 25 David was teaching tennis at a club in London when Mary called and asked him to work with her. Three days later he was with her at a tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz. No glorified gofer, David takes his duties seriously. At the Indian Wells event in California in March, Mary won her first match 6-1, 6-3. David, though, was dissatisfied with her play and ordered her back on the court for a hitting session. “He may be the toughest coach I’ve ever had,” said Mary in Paris, “but that’s what I needed. What happened here is the result of hard work.”

So we’ll do this – I’ll say that Mr. Pierce was absolutely a huge factor in preparing his daughter to take Paris – that’s on the record and the media didn’t get it wrong either (let’s hear it for reporters like L. Jon Wertheim who get to the heart of tennis and its complexities). And we’ll acknowledge that the coach here was her brother, who provided something else that his daughter needed to take the title. And that too is on the record and as his daughter has said, David Pierce played an enormous role.

There’s room enough for the Pierce family (perhaps others) in the story of Mary Pierce’s triumph, and a huge role in Mary Pierce doing all of the work. But Mr. Pierce has got to see something in what he says – he’s more than a little insecure and there may be a reason that players who could benefit would not think of working with him, based on how he treats other people. I think I’m big enough to say when I’m wrong, and you have it recorded here on Tennis-Prose. So if Mr. Pierce does so likewise, that would be pretty impressive.

However, I don’t expect it – because he’s already stated how and what he considers me (which is fine, again – I’m just a tennis fan). And I don’t expect it anyways, because that’s, what like Uncle Toni responding to my pure speculation that he may have modeled Nadal’s game in part on Marcelo Rios (because no one played tennis like Rios, and Nadal being a lefty needed). Or Klahn responding to my hunch that with top conditioning and better training he’d be something special for U.S. tennis, or however other many stupid things I’ve written. For what it’s worth, I think we have a lot of fun at Tennis-Prose. This one is certainly memorable.

Scoop, interesting Uncle Toni also spoke with other players apparently about Rios’ game. Seems like a little bit of a slip up there that suggests that a little bit of Nadal’s game relates back to Chilean superstar, even if Uncle Toni wanted to make sure that Nadal was a gentleman and nothing like the austere playmaker.