By Chris Davies
August 28 2003

Mary Pierce eventually overcame 22nd seed Jelena Dokic in a 3 set battle and one of the best matches in the womens draw so far at the second round of the US Open Pierce started well breaking Dokic serve which only seemed to fire double faults and couldn't cope with the Frenchwoman's powerful shots and court coverage.

The 63rd in the world ranked Pierce claimed the first set 6-2 and looked on course for a straight sets win racing to a 5-3 lead in the second set and holding a match point but Dokic started to play to her ability. The Serb rallied back to 5-5 and forced a tie-breaker which she won 7-5.

Dokic who has fallen to 23rd in the world raced into a 5-1 lead and looked as if it was all over for the Australian and French Open Champion but a bizzare period in the match saw that defecit decrease to 5-5 then to a 6-5 lead forcing Jelena to serve to stay in the match. Another tie-break was forced and Dokic immediately taking the mini-break but could not establish herself in the tie-breaker with her poor serves seeing Mary Pierce proceed into the third round.

Ai Sugiyama the 15th seed surprisingly found herself battling against Virginie Razzano, after losing the first set 6-1 the petite Japanese star was forced to regroup and came through in 1-, 6-3, 6-3.


2nd rd:

(15) Ai Sugiyama (Jpn) bt Virginie Razzano (Fra) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3

Saori Obata (Jpn) bt (32) Marie-Gaiane Mikaelian (Swi) 7-5, 6-4

Claudine Schaul (Lux) bt Samantha Reeves (USA) 6-1, 4-6, 6-3

Dinara Safina (Rus) bt Ludmila Cervanova (Svk) 6-4, 6-1

Mary Pierce (Fra) bt (22) Jelena Dokic (Ser) 6-2 ,6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5)