|
Coetzer def. Kleinova, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
Another downfall to being in the toughest part of the draw was the abundance of big names that was to play on the same day. Up until the semi-final stage, the scheduling is as follows: on the odd numbered days, the top half of the women's draw and the bottom half of the men's were to play, and on the even numbered days, the bottom half of the women's draw, and the top half of the men's draw were played to complete that round (I hope that made sense.) Amanda is very popular in Australia; given her semi-final showings in '96 and '97, and her unforgettable matches against Steffi Graf and Anke Huber in the past two years, but it was names such as Graf, Hingis, Seles, Kournikova, and Pierce, not to mention male stars such as Andre Agassi who took up the showcourts.
For her first round match against qualifier Sandra Kleinova, Amanda was initially scheduled to play on Court 18, the fourth showcourt. However, due to the slow progression of play on that court, the match was shifted out to Centre, after the schedule of play there had finished early. We had been watching Thomas Muster play Sjeng Schalken on Court 18, but we went out during the third set to get something to eat. We were fortunate enough to see on the Match Update Centre that the Coetzer/Kleinova match had been moved, and got into Centre Court relatively early, though the match had already started.
From the outset, it was obvious that for some reason, Amanda wasn't playing as well as she had been playing in Perth and Sydney. She was hitting a lot of balls short in the court, making shocking unforced errors and her serve was also letting her down. She scrapped through the first set, but wasn't so lucky in the second. Kleinova was playing very well; she had come through three qualifying matches and seemed better acclimatised to the conditions and surroundings. In the late afternoon in Melbourne it is difficult to play on Centre Court, due to the swirling winds and the shadows caused by the partially closed roof. Amanda later partly attributed her poor form in the match to the conditions.
I must admit that at 5-4 in the final set with Kleinova serving for the match, that I was making plans to go back to Sydney early. Throughout the match, it had been Kleinova who was forcing the play but she finally tensed up when victory was in sight. In the final stages of the match, Amanda also picked up her game; moving Sandra around and making her hit a lot more balls. She took full advantage of her opponent's nervousness to win the third set, 7-5.
|
