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Coetzer def. Lee, 6-3, 7-5
Coetzer/Broad lt. Roditi/Wild, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5
Crappy scheduling by the Australian Open officials saw Amanda shunted out to Court 6 to play her third round match against Janet Lee. By the time the warm-up began, there were already people sitting on the steps, as the stands were packed.
Amanda didn't play as well as she did against Halard-Decugis, but she didn't need to. Lee surprised me with the power that she was able to generate, off both her serve and her groundstrokes, but aside from that, she is still rather a one-dimensional player. Amanda played well within herself to defeat Janet in straight sets. The only problem with Amanda's game that I could see was with her serve, and it had been a problem throughout the whole tournament. (More about that later...) Amanda seemed happy with her form, and when the cross-dressing and mohawked Mary Pierce fans made an appearance to cheer for her, she made a special point of going over to them to sign autographs.
(Another anecdote: I was talking to an American guy sitting next to me, and he told me that he knew Amanda personally, because he was friends with one of her former coaches. Amanda had apparently boarded with his family at one stage. When I mentioned that I ran a web-site dedicated to her, he said to tell everyone that she was a very lovely girl.)
I had tickets to see the night session match between Steffi Graf and Mary Joe Fernandez. After the Coetzer/Lee match, my friends and I went into the city to have a meal, before coming back to the tennis centre when the night session began. Consequently, I missed watching Amanda play mixed doubles with Neil Broad, though I did dash out briefly to catch the last few games and get some pics of her coming off court. The mixed doubles match again went to three sets, and didn't finish until about quarter past seven. Amanda and Neil unfortunately lost to David Roditi and Linda Harvey Wild.
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