Pierce Wraps Up 2005 Acura Classic Title

It took her seven match points, but Mary Pierce fought off Ai Sugiyama’s comeback bid in the final and won her first Acura Classic title, 6-0, 6-3, before a capacity crowd of 6,500 at the La Costa Resort and Spa.

Playing in her ninth Acura Classic, Pierce had reached four quarterfinals, two semifinals and one final, but each time she had fallen short of winning the title at the La Costa Resort and Spa.

This year, there was no doubt this was Pierce’s year as she defeated five tough opponents to win her first career U.S. hard court title.

In the first set of the final, Pierce picked up where she left off in her semifinal victory over China’s Shuai Peng as she came out hitting the ball hard and playing aggressive from the baseline.

Pierce was so dominant in the set that Sugiyama won only a total of eight points in the set and two points on her own serve.

As the crowd was still settling into their seats on Stadium Court, Pierce won the first set at love in just 22 minutes. “I was really pleased with the first set,” Pierce said. “I was really playing well, didn’t make any mistakes, I was coming forward and I was hitting my shots.”

With the crowd cheering Sugiyama to get on the scoreboard, she broke Pierce to open the second set to the delight of the fans.

In the next game however, Sugiyama double faulted twice and dropped her serve. Pierce broke her two more times and built a 5-1 lead.

Pierce served for the match, but Sugiyama began hitting winners and fought off four championship points. Pierce then double faulted to lose serve and make the score 5-2.

Sugiyama easily held serve and the crowd pulled for her to extend the match as she trailed 5-3.

“Ai is a great fighter. She never gives up no matter what the score is,” Pierce said. “She just keeps running and hitting the ball.”

As Pierce served for the match a second time, she opened the game with an ace and a service winner to take a 30-0 lead. After double faulting, she hit a hard serve which glanced wide off Sugiyama’s backhand return to give her two more championship points.

At 40-15, Pierce’s net cord fell wide. On the next point, she came to the net and stood about a foot away preparing to win the match as Sugiyama sent up a very short lob.

Pierce missed an easy overhead to bring the game to deuce.

After winning the next point to give her a seventh championship point, Pierce stepped up to the baseline, took her time and served her fourth ace of the afternoon to end the match.

Pierce admitted she got tight at the end of the match. “It got a little tight there at the end and closing it out got a little tough,” she said.

• Pierce improves her 2005 match record to 28-10.
• Pierce is projected to be ranked 11th in the world when the new WTA Tour rankings are released on Monday.
• Pierce has now won 17 career WTA Tour singles titles.
• Pierce is now 5-6 in career head-to-head meetings with Sugiyama.
• Pierce was making her ninth Acura Classic appearance.
• Sugiyama will be ranked 26 in the world when the rankings are released on Monday.
• Sugiyama’s 2005 match record is now 17-19.
• Sugiyama was playing in her 11th Acura Classic. It was her first final here.
• After her Saturday night semifinal singles victory over Akiko Morigami, Sugiyama finished her semifinal doubles match on Sunday at 11:53 p.m.

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