It’s a Net Win for Pierce

You might say it was a night of collapses -- human and inhuman -- at Staples Center.

In no uncertain order:

* The fragile net. It fell down when a laughing Mary Pierce of France leaned on it in the first game of the second set after her opponent, Kim Clijsters of Belgium, hit a net-cord winner. There was a momentary delay as the net crew busily went to work, measuring and altering to find the correct specifications.

“It almost took me out,” Pierce said, smiling. “I scraped my knees a little bit. I didn’t expect to go over that easily. I was pretty surprised.”

* The error-ridden Belgian who suffered a rare loss in California. Clijsters was unusually erratic, twice letting service breaks disappear in the third set. Clijsters served for the match at 6-5 and was broken at 15.

Even Clijsters couldn’t get away with 11 double faults and 31 unforced errors as Pierce won, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (2), in a round-robin match at the season-ending WTA Tour Championships on Tuesday night. The match lasted 1 hour 51 minutes, nothing close to their last meeting.

This was a rematch of their U.S. Open final in September, which Clijsters won easily, dropping only four games. This time, a weary Clijsters blamed her lack of sharpness on jet-lag, though she arrived in the area Friday. The bright arena lights were tough on her tired eyes.

“I’ve been trying to come to basketball games, trying to stay awake,” she said. “Trying to eat a little bit later, stay up a little bit longer. But it seems like I go to my room and I fall asleep. It hasn’t been easy at all the last few days.”

Pierce, who won the first set in 18 minutes, could relate.

“In the afternoon, I had a nap, and I really wanted to stay in bed,” she said. “I didn’t want to get out of bed. What really made me happy and motivated is that next week at this time I’ll be on vacation.”

It won’t get any easier for Clijsters as far as sleep deprivation. Not only does she have to come back to play her second match tonight, she is scheduled to be in the last match.

Tuesday was not a good sign for a quick night. After Pierce’s victory, defending champion Maria Sharapova of Russia defeated Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, in 1 hour 48 minutes. Sharapova has lost only once in six matches at Staples Center.

The opening night finale, a 6-2, 7-6 (1) victory for Lindsay Davenport over Russia’s Nadia Petrova, did not start until after 10:20 p.m.

To put it in Clijsters’ terms, that would be 7:20 a.m. in Belgium -- an early breakfast in her hometown of Bree.

She next plays Amelie Mauresmo of France, and needs the victory, not only to stay alive for the weekend knockout rounds, but also to remain in contention for the season-ending No. 1 ranking.

Clijsters, who trails the No. 1-ranked Davenport by 155 points, has lost to Mauresmo only twice in 10 matches. Then again, Pierce had never won a set against Clijsters in their previous three matches.

Despite Clijsters’ woes, she still had the wherewithal to keep fighting, taking the second set and opening a 4-2 lead in the third. Still, despite serving for the match at 6-5, she never felt truly comfortable.

“I knew I was up, but I didn’t feel like I was up because I didn’t feel good out there, not at all,” Clijsters said.

Give Pierce plenty of credit for coming out with a different approach from the Open. The third-set tiebreaker was vintage Pierce as she consistently delivered a fierce one-two punch, a big serve followed by a forehand winner.

“I just feel like I learned something from the last match when I played Kim,” she said. “And I went out there with some different strategy than the last time.”