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Page 4
Hardest Working Player: AMANDA COETZER Amanda is a hard worker in the sense that she gives her best in training and in match play, she enters a lot of tournaments and is willing to play as many matches as she can in order to reap as many rewards as possible. Even her whole game plan is a lot of hard work as she runs down a lot of balls and keeps the ball in play until her opponent makes the mistake. Unfortunately, 1998 was not her best year. Compared to 1997 when she broke into the Top 5 for the first time in her ten-year career, 1998 was a slump for her as she slipped out of the Top 10 and finished at #17 for the season. However, her hard work has seen her win her fifth title and the biggest tournament of her career to date at Hilton Head. Straight after this breakthrough tournament, she reached the semis of another Tier I claycourt tournament at Amelia Island, which awarded her the Chase Player of the Month award for March. Among her season highlights include a quarterfinal showing at the US Open, her first Grand Slam quarter final in 18 months. Her ability to work hard for every point has paid her dividends this year against players such as Irina Spirlea and Anna Kournikova - players who thrive best on quick, easy points and quick, easy matches before self-destructing. Her hard work also paid off against fellow baseliners Conchita Martinez and even Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, a player also renowned for working hard for every point and running every ball down. However, success this season was rather limited. While she played a gruelling schedule of 25 tournaments, she suffered 16 early round losses, including 4 first round losses. Methinks it is not her work ethic but a lack of a weapon which sometimes renders her demise, as she loses quite badly to players who can be aggressive with the ball, dictate play well, and readily hit winners from many angles on the court. This is evident in three straight set losses she suffered this year to both Lindsay Davenport and Mary Pierce, two losses to Anke Huber and one to Steffi Graf.
Like Martina Hingis, Mary started and ended the year in brilliant form. In January, she won all four of her matches at the Hopman Cup, and reached the quarters at the Australian Open. She also won two titles early in the year at Paris and Amelia Island. These achievements early in the year took Mary to #5 in the world, her highest ranking in two years. However, her game seemed to fall apart in the middle of the year when it counted the most, as it often does in cycles. She lost in the third round of the Italian Open as the defending champion to inexperienced campaigner Mirjana Lucic. Injuries sidelined her for much of the clay court season. Then the real bomb came when she was eliminated in the second round of the French Open and the first round of Wimbledon - her first ever first round exit at a Grand Slam tournament. For a Mary Pierce fan, it is quite harrowing to watch her winning tournaments one week, and slumping in the opening rounds the next. That is what literally happened in the US hardcourt season when she reached the final in San Diego, defeating Venus Williams and Martina Hingis in back-to-back matches en route to the championship match. But in her next tournament, she lost in the first round in Montreal to Mary Joe Fernandez, a seasoned campaigner who had only played five matches this season prior to their clash. In hindsight, she had suffered a groin injury before the San Diego final which hindered her success for the tournaments following. However, she was pretty much on a mini-comeback after injury when she reached the fourth round of the US Open. Since then, she has only suffered losses to Top 5 players Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams and Martina Hingis. Mary really stepped up her game during the indoor season when she won back-to-back titles for the first time in her career, winning at Moscow by defeating Venus Williams and Monica Seles in the semis and the final respectively, and at Luxembourg by not dropping a single game in the final. Unfortunately, inconsistency plagued her at the Chase, when she lost to Martina Hingis in straight sets. Nevertheless, an up-and-down season has seen her finish the year at #7.
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