Pierce has grass distinction

Mary Pierce's second attempt on Wimbledon continued with stealthy confidence out on court 14 late yesterday afternoon as she eventually cruised past the stocky Ukrainian Natalia Medvedeva after apparently finding trouble in the first set.

As ever, the problem for the hugely talented 13th seed was how to adapt her beautifully rhythmic ground strokes to the faster, choppier pace of grass courts, and how much they might be disturbed by the obligation to go to the net to volley.

Pierce's attempts at the latter met with mixed results. Serving for the first set at 5-4 she fluffed a drop shot and then botched a backhand volley as she tried to close out the set. This excursion away from the familiar territory of the baseline seemed to unnerve her, for she then drove both a backhand and a forehand into the tramlines, before double-faulting on her serve.

She composed herself, with a mixture of Gallic grunts and mystical eye- closing, winning the set with a superb deep forehand and a powerful serve which Medvedeva returned too long.

Pierce then visibly relaxed, helped by her change-round routines. First she cleanses her eyes from a small bottle of eyedrops, then she performs a few balletic stretches, and then she drifts off into a trance of such tranquillity that all the hubbub around her seems to be banished.

The eyedrops were apparently necessitated by the day's persistent element, the gusting wind with all its dust. "I'm not allergic to grass, nor do I have hay-fever," she said with a smile afterwards. She also modestly nominated "reaching the second week of Wimbledon this year" as her greatest achievement playing on grass.

But she is plainly enjoying herself more. During the second set all the timing of her formidable two-fisted backhand was back, especially when she punched it straight down the line. "I'm starting to learn the right shots to play, and I'm getting over the weirdest thing which is simply the sensation of walking on grass."

Her new coach, Brad Gilbert, is also having a beneficial effect on her game, if the psycho- babble jargon she spouted after the match is anything to go by.

She ruthlessly broke Medvedeva's first service game of the second set with a combination of powerful returns and good placements. And as she warmed to her task, she began to reach high into her service to give it extra weight and pace.

By the end, she was an emphatic, generous winner, calmly signing autographs for her fans, and waving to the crowd which is always drawn to her. Then it was off to the interview room where the inevitable question about her tennis dresses arose from, it should be stressed, a woman journalist. One day soon, Wimbledon may have to take Mary Pierce seriously.