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I mean you shouldn't be so nice but you shouldn't be so mean, either. There's a happy medium where you have to know when to push the girl or boy and when not to."As for this year's Wimbledon (all she would say of last year was that "some things came up"), Pierce is definitely planning on being there. "I'm really looking forward to it, and I don't see there'll be any problems."For the moment, Pierce has other territories to conquer - France itself, for example, which was why last week's tournament, her first "at home" since becoming a Grand Slam champion, was so important. There was something of the charm offensive about it as she "did her big day with the media" as her Women's Tennis Association minder put it, and took the opportunity to launch the Mary Pierce Fan Club.The MPFC stand, on the concourse that circled the centre court, was a study in image projection, featuring Pierce in a series of striking poses against the backdrop of the sea - leaping balletically across the sand as gulls whirled overhead, sun- worshipping on deck, strumming a guitar below. The message was, this girl's got soul as well as body."I think the French are starting to get to know me," Pierce said in a way that seemed to acknowledge that this was not a straightforward process. One suspects this has less to do with whether someone who is abroad so much and whose first language is English can be described as "really French" than the sharp edges to her personality.Her first-round match, against Rennae Stubbs of Australia, conveyed a lot. In coming through to win from 5-1 down in the third set, Pierce showed what extraordinary determination she has to back her powerful hitting.

But when it was all falling apart in the middle of the match, we saw her other side: the haughtiness and the flouncing about which, even if it is Pierce's idea of what constitutes French sophistication is not one shared by most of her new compatriots.She does seem to rub people up the wrong way. There was the rather cruel moment during the Australian Open when Natalia Zvereva, a much jokier and more easy-going character, mimicked her drama-queen opponent from across the net, an incident Pierce claimed not to have seen. "If it amuses the public and she's having fun, I don't mind," she said, somewhat unconvincingly.Then Pierce got into trouble with Stubbs, who accused her of trying to put her off on her second serve by jumping about on the baseline. "For the No3 in the world to resort to those tactics is pretty disgraceful," Stubbs said.There is a more sympathetic side to Pierce, but not many people get to see it. One who has is the former French star of the Sixties and Seventies Pierre Barthes, who now runs a tennis school in the Midi.

During the lowest point in Pierce's career, two years ago, when her father was having fights with her bodyguards, it was to Barthes that she turned, all her vulnerability exposed, telling him, "I don't know how to play", and that "when I win, I don't know why, and when I lose I don't know why either."Barthes said he asked Pierce why she had gone to him for advice, and her reply was: "Because I trust you." He did help her for a couple of months, enough time to discover that she "was a great girl, charming and nice", and also to arrive at a theory about her manner on court."She has had a lot of critics," Barthes said, "people who saw her as insupportable, difficult. I am sure it all goes back to the education she got from her father If she did not win she was always having to make excuses We still see that now, but it is getting better. I remember when she was playing at my club one day and she was being, shall we say, not very modest, and I told her, `Mary, this is not right,' and of course she knew it and at the end of the game she was saying `I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't behave like that.' "All sports people suffer in their pursuit of success, Mary Pierce more than most. As she advances on the high ground of women's tennis, the challenge is to realise that she doesn't have to be like that.. THE Champion Hurdle second favourite Large Action came through his final Cheltenham prep here yesterday with a highly satisfactory performance in the City Trial Hurdle. Defeat was not expected - the seven-year-old started at 2-9 - but in a small field no conclusion is foregone. The tactical battle began before the start, when Jamie Osborne's three rivals lined up in Indian file behind him.