Pierce Shuts Down the Up-and-Comer

Hold off on that coronation.

Friday’s accolades for Shuai Peng were undercut by Saturday’s exhaustion. That, combined with Mary Pierce’s veteran awareness, made for a short afternoon of tennis at the Acura Classic at La Costa Resort and Spa.

The sixth-seeded Pierce, of France, dismantled the Chinese teenager in the semifinals, 6-2, 6-2, in 65 minutes, breaking serve six times and fighting off eight break points. This will be Pierce’s second appearance in the final here; she lost in 1998 to Lindsay Davenport.

Her dominance highlighted what was a brief daytime program Saturday. The doubles semifinal ended prematurely when Russian Vera Zvonareva rolled her left ankle early in the first set and had to be helped off the court, creating this strange scoreline: Conchita Martinez/Virginia Ruano Pascual def. Elena Likhovtseva/Zvonareva, 1-3 (ret).

The night singles semifinal was abbreviated too. Ai Sugiyama defeated Akiko Morigami, 6-4, 4-3 (ret.). Morigami needed an injury timeout for treatment of tendinitis in her right knee while trailing, 1-2, in the second set. She continued for four more games before calling it quits, bringing a premature end to the first all-Japanese semifinal at a Tier I tournament.

The Pierce-Peng match had figured to be more competitive, based on Peng’s performance Friday night against Kim Clijsters of Belgium. Peng defeated the former No. 1, 6-4, 6-4, and afterward Clijsters said the 19-year-old was the best player she had faced in a long time.

This was Peng’s first Tier I semifinal, and she probably will break into the top 40 when the weekly rankings are released by the WTA Tour on Monday.

Clijsters said she thought Peng “definitely” could reach the top three in the world, and when asked whether she expected to see a great deal of Peng in the future, she nodded, saying: “Yes. Gee, that question scares me.”

But Peng, who uses two hands on both sides, was hardly the same player about 14 hours later. Playing 45 games in one night has a way of doing that -- even to a teenager. She left the court after 11 p.m. Friday, with the Clijsters quarterfinal and her subsequent doubles match totaling 45 games.

“Really tired from last night from singles and doubles,” Peng said.

Pierce, 30, said she didn’t notice Peng’s fatigue, saying: “She’s 19.”

“I knew what I needed to do,” Pierce said, noting they had played in Rome in May. “She’s a dangerous player if you let her play. The key for me was hitting it hard.”

Pierce’s brother and coach, David, provided a scouting report, having watched the Clijsters-Peng match. Unlike Pierce, Clijsters stays well behind the baseline and puts more topspin on the ball. Pierce’s hard, flat shots put Peng, already a step slower, on the defensive immediately.

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The JPMorgan Chase Open starts Monday in Carson with Pierce in the same half of the draw as No. 1-seeded Maria Sharapova of Russia and No. 3 Elena Dementieva of Russia. Clijsters, seeded fifth, is in the lower half with two other Russians, No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova and No. 4 Nadia Petrova.

Zvonareva and Morigami told tour officials that the injuries they suffered Saturday would prevent them from playing at the Home Depot Center.

There are no Americans among the top 16 seeded players. The wild-card spots went to Jill Craybas, Marissa Irvin and Lilia Osterloh.