When Pierce Says <i> Allez</i> , Graf Bids <i> Adieu</i> to Streak : French Open: After 33 consecutive victories in Grand Slam matches, No. 1 player falls in Paris.

Steffi Graf’s remarkable string of victories had to end.

The winner of 33 consecutive matches in Grand Slam events was seeking her fifth consecutive major title when the French Open began last week, but it appeared there was no one to challenge her.

Until Thursday. In an unimaginable turn of events, women’s tennis was jolted when 12th-seeded Mary Pierce displayed a mastery of Graf seldom seen since Monica Seles was grunting her way to Grand Slam tournament titles.

Playing almost superhuman tennis, Pierce, 19, swept aside top-ranked Graf in the semifinals at Roland Garros Stadium as if she were a first-round qualifier, 6-2, 6-2.

Giving women’s tennis an injection of freshness, Pierce will play in Saturday’s final against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who defeated Conchita Martinez, 6-3, 6-1, in an uninspired semifinal of Spanish clay-court specialists.

Pierce, who lives in Florida but is playing out of France, particularly when in Paris, ended Graf’s streak of having reached tournament finals at 20.

“I didn’t feel I was out there,” said Graf, whose last defeat in a Grand Slam event was inflicted by Sanchez Vicario in the quarterfinals of the 1992 U.S. Open.

Graf wasn’t out there long. Play lasted 1 hour 17 minutes, and about the only thing that seemed to slow Pierce was the weather. After breaking Graf for the second time in the second set, the match was postponed for 40 minutes because of a downpour.

“I really didn’t want to stop,” said Pierce, who lost in the fourth round of the last two French Opens to Jennifer Capriati. “(It) entered my mind that she was waiting for that.”

For a while, it was doubtful whether the women’s semifinals would be played at all. The roller-coaster weather had gone from cold to hot, to very hot, to humid, to thunderstorms during the week. But the sun poked through Thursday long enough for Pierce and Sanchez Vicario to make their marks.

The rain delay gave Graf a moment to collect her thoughts and consider changing her strategy. Instead, she did nothing.

“I just changed clothes and waited,” she said.

Once the match resumed, Pierce needed only 12 more minutes of slam-bang tennis to call it a day. She has lost only 10 games in six matches, a tournament record, and is the first French woman to reach the final since Francoise Durr won the title in 1967.

Pierce, whose mother is French, is enjoying the adulation of French fans but seems to be having an identity crisis.

“I don’t really know if I am either-or,” she said when asked if she were French or American.

She was definitely feeling French on Thursday. Yelling “Allez!” to herself when her potent ground strokes hit the deep lines, the bilingual Pierce blew kisses to the appreciative Center Court crowd after the victory.

“I’m very, very happy and a little shocked at the way I won so easily,” Pierce said.

Graf was surprised, too. Although she had not played well in reaching the semifinals, she is so dominant that most opponents celebrate a moral victory when winning a set against her.

Pierce had not been challenged in her blitzkrieg to the semifinals, and many thought her flawless game would crumble under the pressure of the indomitable Graf. After all, she had beaten Pierce in straight sets in their only previous encounters, both last year.

But Boris Becker, who has become a good friend, told Pierce on the eve of her biggest match, “If you think you are nervous, Steffi will be twice as nervous.”

Pierce was nervous, but kept smacking the ball as if it had been shot from a cannon.

“She had no chance to attack me because I was playing very deep,” Pierce said. “And I was changing the rhythm all the time.”

The ease with which Graf was broken was the most surprising aspect of the match. Pierce showed from the opening moments that she was not intimidated, either by Graf or the idea of playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal. She broke Graf for a 1-0 lead, and then did it again to go up, 3-0 and 5-1.

Graf could recall only a few other times when she faced such a devastating opponent. Even when losing to Seles, who has not played since she was stabbed during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, in 1993, Graf usually was not overwhelmed.

Despite her disappointment, Graf realizes Pierce could revitalize women’s tennis.

“It has definitely been very healthy,” she said of Pierce’s emergence as a force. “I think it is a good thing. It is difficult for me to say that right now.”

By contrast, there was little tension in the Sanchez Vicario-Martinez match. Martinez, ranked No. 3, lost her serve in the first game and went downward from there.

Giving her Barcelona rival a chance to win the French Open again, Martinez made 48 unforced errors in 72 minutes.

No. 2 Sanchez Vicario, who won here as a 17-year-old in 1989, has defeated Martinez five times in six meetings. But Martinez will get a big assist for this one.

“The whole match was unforced errors,” Martinez said. “It was all my mistakes. She was just putting the ball in the court.”