ROLAND GARROS 1998

    These articles correspond to one of the most important wins in Magüi's career so far, in the second round in Roland Garros in 1998, against the French Mary Pierce, by 7-5 and 6-2.

(Translation from http://www.galeon.com/v/vdafc/)

    But, the one who was the centre of attention was the 19 year-old Canarian Magüi Serna, who defeated the best French tennis player of the moment, Mary Pierce, 11th-seeded, by 7-5 and 6-2, in 69 minutes.

    Maybe many people didn’t like at all the fourth day of Roland Garros. The weather was unpleasant and it rained again. There were many interruptions in the matches, and finally, some favourite players lost. The most important one, to go on as every day, the Russian Yevgeni Kafelnikov (sixth favourite and champion in 1996), who was defeated by the Swede Thomas Enqvist, by 4-6, 7-6 (10), 7-6 (4) and 6-1. But the happiest were the Spaniards.

    Magüi’s win was surprising and spectacular. Serna had a difficult match. Pierce is adored in this country despite her Canadian origin, and people only hate her when she begins to fool around . Serna was losing by 5-1, and nobody belief that she could win that match. But she did. She began to serve well, and Pierce began to think that the match was won. The Spaniard got six consecutive games to get a 7-5 in only 56 minutes, then she got another game, Pierce another one, but being as weak as she is, she was desmoralized. Nobody bet on her. She was desestabilized. Magüi, however, was much calmer, with confidence and power. She won finally losing only one point out of the seventeen points played. Great.
 

(Translation from EL MUNDO (29/5/98) )

 Serna breaks Mary Pierce’s “enchantment”

Five Spanish women in the third round in Roland Garros

    Mary Pierce has an engrossed face and she seems to be looking at herself in the racket as if it was a magic mirror. Like Snow White’s stepmother. And, like in the tale, the magic racket/mirror didn’t work as she expected. Magüi Serna was the most beautiful on Suzanne Lenglen court, and defeated her in an hour an a half (7-5, 6-2)

    The winner had to explain the international press that all María Luisas in the Canary Islands are called Magüi. Things of being the surprise of the day. She was the 36th-ranked. Pierce, the 11th . She, another Spaniard, 19 years old, with a short career. Pierce, the hope of France, with two titles this season, a Grand Slam (Australia, 95), and the memory of a Roland Garros final lost (1994) to Arantxa.

    Everything started as it was expected. One of those matches when the only important thing is the score. Mary Pierce is leading by 5-1, and the match goes fast. The French born in Montreal (Canada) with American father is radiant . Before each serve she “sweeps” the clay with that smug look.

    BLUE DRESSED. In front of her, Serna. She is dressed in blue, her favourite colour. She suffers. “In the beginning, I was nervous. She was ahead in the score. I tried to move her, but I was stopped because of the nerves. Little by little I was in the match and she was the one who got nervous. I came with a winning mentality. But she is seeded, was playing at home and hits very hard. Despite all this, I had hopes”. Magüi started to run very fast, she hit everything, she hit the ball where Pierce couldn’t reach it. Point by point, Serna got six consecutive games, six, to win the first set by 7-5.

    And Mary Pierce suffered a relapse . Her radiant face converted into a sad face. She was looking at the floor. She started to talk to herself (in English), and to repeat all the tiques that make her one of the players in the circuit with the most manies: two hits with her raquet to shake the clay off, tightening her ponytail, combing her rebel hair, fitting her necklace, intense breathe as if she was breathing the air of half court....

Theatre, but bad theatre

    She was touched. Her end was in the fifth game of the second and last set. Serna got three games by 40-0. And she won in her first match point (6-2). The crowd, disappointed, whistled her when she was leaving the court. Later she said that playing in Paris won’t be special for her anymore. Without losing her smile. But hurt.

    THE THUMB. Magüi Serna, who raised her thumb when the crowd clapped at her as she was leaving the court, showed her compassion: “ The whistles surprised me. I felt bad. I wouldn’t like to be whistled in Spain” Pierce recognised that her problems in her back didn’t influence in the score. “ I don’t fancy looking for excuses. She has played a great match”
 

(Translation from DIARIO AS (Friday, 29th May 1998))

Magüi Serna did the ‘heroic feat’ of the day after defeating Mary Pierce when she was losing by 5-1

    The rain wanted to ruin yesterday the day in Roland Garros, but under the storm clouds shone the Spanish sun, the one of the Armada, now with men and women. Because the Spanish girls are now doing as well as the boys. Magüi Serna was the star of the day after defeating Mary Pierce, the sentimental favourite of the crowd from Paris. And with her, another four Spanish players, Arantxa, Conchita, Virginia Ruano and Gala León, got the record of number of Spanish women players who reach the third round in the French Open.

[...  ]

    But what really hurt the local spectators was Pierce’s defeat, especially the way it was produced. The pretty girl of the French tennis began very well and got a 5-1, but Magüi did something incredible: she won the first set by 7-5 after winning six consecutive games. The second set began, and with Pierce without knowing what to do on the court before the superiority of the Spaniard, the Spaniard broke her serve immediately and got a 4-1 in the score, and the French couldn’t react. Pierce lost the set and the match by 6-2, she was whistled by the crowd, and Magüi celebrated her win very happy.

Magüi: “Now I aspire to more”

    Magüi Serna was radiant after the match: “This year I wanted to be top twenty but now, seeing the way I’m playing, I aspire to more. I’ve learned to play better the points and not to rush. Conchita has asked me about the score and it’s important for me that they’re happy because of my wins, she and Arantxa. I was enjoying it against Pierce. It has been a tough match, especially seeing how it began. The match against Dragomir will be different.
 

(Translation from El País)

Serna breaks the forecasts and defeats the French Mary Pierce

Manel Serras.

    Magüi Serna, a 19-year-old Canarian, gave yesterday one of the most important surprises of the day in the women’s tournament in Roland Garros. Serna defeated the French Mary Pierce, 11th-ranked, by 7-5, 6-2 and qualified for the third round in the French Open.

[...]

    Yesterday was a hard day for Pierce. Not only did she lose her match, but she discovered that the crowd from Paris doesn’t love her much. She started being whistled when she was losing by 5-2 in the second set. And she was said goodbye with an impressive whistle of her own crowd. “When I win I’m French. When I lose I’m French-American. From now it won’t be special for me to play in Paris”, she said about to cry in the press conference.

    She was wrong because she thought the Canarian had no chances. Especially when she was winning in the first set by 5-1. Till then the match had been favourable for her, more because of the Spaniard’s nerves than because of the French’s strokes. But when Magüi could calm down, focus on her game and forget everything else, the panorama changed. Not only did Serna consolidate her serve-she had to face only three break balls till the end of the match and she didn’t lose any of them-but she also dominated the points. She saved two set points on her way and won the set and got a 1-0 in the second set: she got seven consecutive games.

    Later, she had break balls in each Pierce’s serve. And she broke it in the sixth game and got a 4-2. In the last four games, Serna only lost one point. “During the match I didn’t think of the score. But when I was winning the second set by 5-2  I thought: Wow, I’m here! You can’t miss it”, said Serna. In the next round she’ll play the Roumanian Alexandra Dragomir, 23rd-ranked.
 

(Translation from Diario Marca (Friday, 29th May 1998)) Fernando M. Carreño

Magüi defeated Pierce in a historic day for the Spanish tennis

    The fourth day in Roland Garros, despite the clouds over Paris, was a light ray for the Spanish tennis, especially for the women tennis, in which Magüi Serna leaded the wins for all of our players.

    For sure in a short period of time will begin the French ironies about the Spanish players. It usually happens when their players fail and our players reach the last rounds, and yesterday, and for the fourth consecutive day, our tennis showed again the power with which it surprises the world now.

    Yesterday, in a Roland Garros characterised by the rain (two hours of initial delay and an interruption during the afternoon), our players got an incredible thing: seven matches ended and eight wins, because the match between Corretja and Vicente, postponed because of lack of light, will suppose that there’ll be another Spaniard in the third round. Impressive and, for the people who haven’t studied what is happening in tennis these last years, incredible.

    And as if it was a symbol, the queen of the day was Spanish and besides of the very new generation: Magüi Serna, who leads the generation that has to substitute Arantxa and Conchita, defeated the French idol, Mary Pierce, besides in a match where not only was the game important, but also the wishes to win she had. Mary started decided to please her crowd as soon as possible, but the Canarian knows that if she wants to get the place in tennis that she wants-and deserves- she doesn’t have to renounce anything, and she didn’t.

    Even when she was losing by 5-1 or with a set ball with 5-2. She continued fighting fiercely, running for every ball and converting wonderful Pierce’s winners into perfect passings. Little by little, Magüi began to lead the match and Pierce began to run on the court following the Canarian’s rhythm, until, not concentrated, she lost four consecutive games (three by 40-0) from the 2-2 in the second set. She left the court while the crowd, who had idolatred her one and a half hour before, was whistling. The crowd said goodbye to Magüi with an impressive and noisy ovation. Magüi’s win was the conoration of a historic fact: never had five Spanish players (women) reached the third round in a Grand Slam. Arantxa and Conchita, look out. They don’t have successors: they have competitors.

Magüi felt pity for her

    Magüi Serna was the star yesterday. With 19 years, she has defeated Novotna, Huber and yesterday Pierce, during this season, and she was the heroine in the Fed Cup against Germany. That’s why she thinks “at the beginning of the year I thought of consolidating among the top twenty, but maybe I think now of going farther”. Serna suffered “when I saw how the crowd whistled Pierce. I wouldn’t like that that happened to me”