Did Grass Scare Off Pierce? : Wimbledon: Withdrawal of French Open finalist leads to much speculation.

The London tabloids are in mourning, to say nothing of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club, where a fortnight of Wimbledon begins today without the tormented Mary Pierce, without much suspense and without a monopoly on the days’ headlines.

Pierce, seeded seventh and set to make her first Wimbledon appearance, withdrew from the tournament late Saturday, citing “reasons far beyond my control.” In Pierce-speak, that presumably means her father, banished from the tour for verbally abusing the 19-year-old star, was making a beeline for Wimbledon, ban or no ban.

But not everyone was convinced. Billie Jean King, interviewed for British television, suggested that Pierce was scared stiff of the draw, so much so that fellow players were making bets on when she would pull out.

“Many of the players think the story about her dad was just a smoke screen,” said King, a former Wimbledon champion who is here as an HBO analyst.

A more likely scenario is that Pierce is simply scared of Wimbledon’s grass courts. After reaching the French Open final, Pierce arrived at the Volkswagen Cup at nearby Eastbourne and was beaten promptly in the quarterfinals of an under-21 event by Czech Ludmila Varmuzova, ranked 639th.

The surface: grass.

Whatever the reasons, Pierce, one of only two players to defeat No. 1-ranked Steffi Graf this year, is a no-show. Her absence not only ruins things for the Fleet Street beasties (“I Love To Walk Around My House Naked,” read a recent Pierce-inspired headline in the Daily Mirror), but it also further reduces the chances of anyone upsetting the near-invincible Graf on the clipped-grass courts, where she has won three consecutive titles.

Granted, it would have been a stretch. Pierce beat Graf on the clay courts of Roland Garros, which isn’t exactly the same thing as the fickle crew-cut surfaces of Wimbledon.

“Mary killed her . . . well, beat her pretty bad,” said Murrieta’s Lindsay Davenport, who is seeded seventh after moving up two spots following Pierce’s withdrawal. “More players now have a little more confidence.”

Maybe it’s ignorance, maybe it’s jet lag, but Davenport said she has as good a chance as anyone of moving through the brackets. Big girl. Big serve. Big game.

Of course, Davenport, 18, didn’t arrive until Sunday--she skipped the pre-tournament practice sessions at Wimbledon to attend her high school graduation ceremony--and didn’t hear about Pierce’s decision until early afternoon. As for the supposed reason for Pierce’s absence, Davenport didn’t buy it.

“I don’t think she’d pull out because of that,” she said.

So, gone is Pierce, and long gone is Monica Seles, leaving the task of an unlikely upset of Graf to the likes of No. 4 Martina Navratilova, No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and No. 3 Conchita Martinez, both of Spain, and No. 5 Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic.

Navratilova, a nine-time singles winner at Wimbledon and the oldest player in the draw at 37, is making her final singles appearance at the Grand Slam event. Though Navratilova was beaten in the quarterfinals at Eastbourne, her serve-and-volley game could get her to the semifinals, maybe to the final if the tennis gods have a flair for the dramatic.

Sanchez Vicario is fresh from winning the French Open, while Martinez has the memory of last year’s trip to the Wimbledon semifinals. Novotna led, 4-1, against Graf in the third set of last year’s final before losing.

Longshots? Eighth-seeded Natalia Zvereva of Russia, 30th-seeded Zina Garrison-Jackson or perhaps unseeded Lori McNeil, who faces Graf in the first round. In 1992, McNeil upset Graf in the opening round of the Virginia Slims Championship and became the lowest ranked player (No. 18 at the time) to defeat the German star since 1985.

The men’s side of the draw is more muddled. No. 1-seeded and defending champion Pete Sampras has one of the deadliest serves in the game--a near-must to win Wimbledon--and has lost only five matches all year. But on occasion, Sampras has a knack of struggling with his concentration.

Germany’s Michael Stich, who won here in 1991, is seeded second and is 6-1 on grass this year, and Sweden’s Stefan Edberg, seeded third, has won two Wimbledon titles and has the serve-and-volley game to win another.

From there, who knows? Croatian Goran Ivanisevic, seeded fourth, has the killer serve and the killer inconsistency. Fifth-seeded Jim Courier reached the final of last year’s tournament, but will be the first to acknowledge that grass isn’t his favorite playing surface. American Todd Martin, who is seeded sixth, beat Sampras in the final at Queen’s Club a week ago, which should count for something.

Then there is seventh-seeded Boris Becker of Germany, a three-time champion who almost always plays well at Wimbledon. But as late as Sunday evening, there were rumors that he might withdraw because of a knee injury.

Andre Agassi, two years removed from his surprising Wimbledon title, is healthy, happy and capable of confounding the experts once more. Last year, he arrived with a gut, but no chest hair. This time, no gut and . . . well, no word on the chest hair.