WHEN SA tennis pundits look back at 1997, they would have to agree it was the year of Amanda Coetzer.

She started the year ranked 12 and then became the first South African in the open era - male or female - to reach a singles ranking of three.

Coetzer admitted that even she was surprised by her performance. "It has been a tremendous year. Not in my wildest dreams did I think it would end this way."

She was not only recognised in her home country but all over the world. The "Tiny Assassin" - as she is known on the tour - was the recipient of an unprecedented four awards from the Women's Tennis Association.

She won for the most improved player, sportmanship, the media award and for the player who gives the most back to the sport.

"I'm not the kind of person who looks for recognition. I do it for myself. But when I look at who voted for me, it was pretty impressive," said Coetzer.

The recognition came from the players themselves (sportmanship), the media and the tournament directors.

Her exploits against former world No 1 Steffi Graf are already legend, but perhaps her quarterfinal victory over the German at the Australian Open in January was an omen.

It was her first of three such wins over the year, with only one of their four encounters going the way of Graf - in Strasbourg, the week before the French Open. And that went to a third set tiebreaker.

A couple of weeks earlier, she handed Graf her worst professional beating when, in front of a partisan Berlin crowd, the South African triumphed for the loss of only one game.

But the coup de grace came at the French Open, where once again the two met in the quarterfinals. It was a tense encounter, but Graf was nervous and by the time she started to find her form, it was too late.

Coetzer's next match was even tougher - against Croatia's Iva Majoli. It see-sawed continually but after a protracted, tight contest, Majoli came through 7-5 in the final set.

Coetzer won two titles, Budapest and Luxembourg, and in grand slam play reached two semifinals (Australia and France), the fourth round at the US Open and the second round at Wimbledon.

She joined an elite group of five players who beat current world No 1 Martina Hingis when ousting the Swiss teenager in the semifinals of an indoor tournament in Leipzig before losing to Jana Novotna.

In Fed Cup play SA fell out of the World Group and into the pits of zonal play. There was a shocking loss to Australia in Durban and then an equally disconcerting failure against Austria.

The crowning glory, though, was the Nelson Mandela Tribute. Fans came out in force to see Boris Becker and Andre Agassi square off.

Richard Krajicek who won the day - but that did not matter. It allowed South Africans to see live Becker, Agassi, Krajicek, Leander Paes, Todd Martin, MaliVai Washington, Coetzer and Majoli.

ONE of the primary tasks awaiting Amanda Coetzer, SA's top woman tennis player, during her short break from competition over Christmas in SA will be to open a game reserve named after her on the outskirts of her home town, Hoopstad, in the Free State. In her typically modest way Coetzer yesterday played down the naming of the new reserve, saying she had not known what it was going to be called.

"Obviously, it is a great honour for me," but she shrugged it off, almost as if she did not understand why it had happened.

To most, the reasons are abundantly apparent. Coetzer is coming off her most successful year in WTA tennis, having reached a ranking high of No 3 in the world. She claimed some of the top scalps along the way, among them world teenage No 1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland and German star Steffi Graf, before Graf succumbed to back problems and later a knee operation.

In recognition of her excellent year, she was invited to join an elite men's field to play an exhibition match against Croatia's Iva Majoli at the Nelson Mandela Tribute in Cape Town next week.

After that, she will have a short break to inspect her new property in Cape Town and see her parents in Hoopstad, before tackling the Hopman Cup mixed event in Australia with partner Wayne Ferreira, "if he is fit enough".

Fitness has been one of the ingredients in the diminutive 26-year-old's remarkable climb up the rankings from the late 20s to the top 10 - and then the top five - but she said the decision to change technical aspects of her game had been more significant.

"I think the work I did with my coach two or three years ago was a major factor this year. It really takes some time for those technical changes to filter through and this year, for the first time, I started reaping the benefits - rich ones."

Coetzer said her service had improved a lot in recent months, and her forehand had become the weapon she needed in her game.

"I realised some time ago that I had to do something to create a bit of a weapon, because I just couldn't win any longer playing the way I played before - I was mainly just defensive all the time.

"I had to create some kind of weapon and I think I have done that with my forehand."

She said it would become harder to carry on winning, with the number of quality younger players coming through, "so I have to take some risks, and changing my technique has been a bit of a risk.

"Fortunately, it has worked for me," she said at a welcoming breakfast function

Coetzer will not be drawn on her goals, saying only that there will be more technical changes.

"Most of my goals are specific short-term ones, but my ranking is not one of them. I have made the mistake before of focusing too hard on my ranking, and that has taken my attention off more important things.

"My goal is to improve my game, because if I do that, all the other things, like winning and improving my ranking, will take care of themselves."

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- An abrupt and premature conclusion to her 1997 tennis season was not about to spoil a year to remember for Amanda Coetzer.

"It's definitely disappointing, but it's not going to take anything away from the way I look at the whole year," Coetzer said after her 6-3, 6-3 first-round upset loss to Nathalie Tauziat at the Chase Championships Monday night.

Enjoying the confidence that is a fringe benefit of a banner year, Coetzer came into her fifth WTA championships feeling for the first time like she could do some damage.

"I think I got a little bit excited when I had a pretty good end to the season," she admitted.

"It would have been nice to finish off with a win at the Chase Championships, but it's such a tough field."

Even though her year ended a few days earlier than she had hoped, the 26-year-old South African was able to reflect on a season with a whole lot to smile about.

"Two Grand Slam semifinals, top five, not bad at all. It's just been a really great year for me," she said.

A regular inhabitant of the bottom half of the top-20 since 1992, Coetzer soared to fourth in the world this year, briefly settling down at a career-high of third in the world.

"When I got to No. 5 I didn't really think I could get my ranking much higher," she said, "and when it got to three for a while, I was very excited about it."

In an era when professional athletes keep getting larger and stronger, Coetzer, with the stature of a jockey, makes for an unlikely success story.

But she won two titles -- Budapest on clay and Luxembourg indoors -- and nearly doubled her previous best earnings year, finishing with more than $700,000 in prize money for 1997.

And she pulled off an extremely rare double by beating two different top-ranked players in the same year. The 5-foot-2 (1.57-meter) blonde played David to Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis' Goliath.

She stunned Graf en route to the semifinals of both the Australian and French Opens, and handed the German superstar the worst beating of her illustrious career -- 6-0, 6-1 in the Berlin quarterfinals.

Then Coetzer dealt Hingis one of her four defeats this year, beating the Swiss sensation in Leipzig last month.

Once regarded as an energetic early round annoyance to the top players, Coetzer became a pint-sized powerhouse, thanks to a new dedication to the sport and an intensive fitness program.

"I think I've put in a lot of effort and really tried hard right from the beginning of the year," she said.

"I think if I look back, I'll really remember it as a very, very consistent year. I had quite a few matches where I really lifted my game ...

"Hopefully, next year I can maintain the same consistency and maybe even lift that level up a little bit further.

"You know, the work never ends."

NEW YORK -- Dressed in her street clothes, the diminutive Amanda Coetzer could easily pass for a gymnast or a figure skater.

But, of course, she's not. The 5-foot-2 South African is a giant-killer on the tennis court.

Ask Steffi Graf.

Before being sidelined with a knee injury that necessitated an operation, Graf had lost just three matches this year -- all to Coetzer. And Coetzer also knocked off Martina Hingis this year, becoming the only player to defeat both Graf and Hingis when both were ranked No. 1 in the world.

"I'm very happy," Coetzer said as she prepared for the season-ending Chase Championships of the Corel WTA Tour at Madison Square Garden.

She should be. Her first-round opponent is Nathalie Tauziat of France, who has never beaten Coetzer in four career meetings. And Coetzer wants to improve on last year's season-ending finish, when she fell to Jana Novotna in the opening round of the 16-player tournament.

This time, Coetzer is seeded No. 3 and is in the top half of the draw with the top-seeded Hingis. But Coetzer says this year is completely different than last.

"Last year I won one match in the last six weeks," she said. "Before that, I never played on indoor courts. I was very unfamiliar with the surface and felt out of place. This year, I have gone well beyond my expectations."

In her first indoor tournament this fall, she reached the final at Leipzig, Germany, knocking off Hingis before falling to Novotna. She followed that up by winning the Seat Luxembourg Open, her second title of the year.

Coetzer, 26, said there are several reasons for her change of fortune.

"I've improved my fitness. I'm older and I feel more mature. And I understand how I win and lose points and how my opponents win and lose points," she said.

If she gets past Tauziat, Coetzer would meet either sixth-seeded Iva Majoli or Anke Huber in the quarterfinals. And if the seedings hold, she would play Hingis in the semifinals.

Hingis will take on big-serving Brenda Schultz-McCarthy in her first-round match.

Other first-round pairings pit second-seeded Novotna against Conchita Martinez, No. 4 Lindsay Davenport against Mary Joe Fernandez, No. 5 Monica Seles against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, No. 7 Mary Pierce against Sabine Appelmans and No. 8 Irina Spirlea against Sandrine Testud.

Coetzer said playing an indoor tournament is a huge change from playing outdoors.

"The matches go from 10 in the morning to 10 at night. You spend more time at the indoor events," she said. "Players are a little tired.''

While the Chase Championships is played only in the evening, Coetzer said the Madison Square Garden event is unique because of where it is held.

"New York is almost notorious for very lively crowds," she said. "They like the underdog. They sort of feel for you."

With 60 match victories as of the beginning of November, Coetzer has won more matches than anyone else on the women's tour this with the exception of Hingis.

Coetzer is coming into the Chase Championships off a quarterfinal loss to Sanchez Vicario in the Advanta Championships. On the other hand, the victory is one of the bright spots of the year for the Spanish veteran, whose only title in 1997 came on the grass at Eastbourne, when the final was rained out and Sanchez Vicario and Novotna were proclaimed co-winners.

Hingis has dominated women's tennis this year, winning 11 singles titles, including three Grand Slam tournaments, and more than $3 million, going into this past week's event in Villanova, Pa. The 17-year-old from Switzerland had won 70 of 74 matches prior to the Advanta Championships, but half of her losses have come since she captured the U.S. Open in September.

Seles is the only previous winner of the WTA Tour's season finale. She has won three times, but her last title came in 1992 before she was stabbed during a match in Hamburg, Germany.

The payoff for the $2 million Chase Championships, which begins its week-long run on Monday, is $500,000, one of the biggest paydays on the women's tour.

"It's such a climax for the end of the year," Coetzer said. "It's very special."

Later this week on Central Park South, on a work shift yet to be determined, Amanda Coetzer will put down her tennis racket, put on an apron and put in some time serving beverages at Mickey Mantle's restaurant. Chances are that not many of the patrons will recognize their server, nor fully appreciate what she has done in 1997, when Amanda Coetzer, all 5-2 of her, has fashioned one of the more astonishing mid-career makeovers you will see.

Or as Coetzer said the other day, "It's not such a disgrace to lose to me now."

When the season-ending Chase Championships commence at the Garden tomorrow, there will be two newcomers to the invitation-only top 16 field, and South Africa's Coetzer, who at 26, may as well be new.

Coetzer (pronounced KOOT-sur) is the smallest elite tennis player in the world, and possibly the only one with a license to bartend (she acquired it last year in Oklahoma City, where she and some local hockey players made an appearance for charity). She is the biggest South African sports hero this side of Ernie Els, and with her blonde hair, blue eyes and dazzling smile, has an appeal that goes beyond the garden-variety tennis fan.

Only two weeks ago, Coetzer reached the No. 3 ranking on the Corel WTA Tour, a career-high standing.

"I didn't expect it to go this way," Coetzer said. "(Even) getting into the top 12 seemed so far away."

Thanks to the help of Australian coach Gavin Hopper, and her own indomitable will, Coetzer has transformed herself from The Nice Little Player Who Tries Hard into a dangerous and tenacious contender. In her 10th year as a pro, she broke into the top 10 for the first time in April. Few figured her to even crack the top 100, but Coetzer continues to smack around doubts as if they were just another baseline backhand.

In winning two tournaments this year and reaching 11 semifinals, Coetzer has scored one victory after another over the tour's biggest names. In Leipzig, Germany, this fall, she knocked off No. 1 Martina Hingis. In May, on the clay of Roland Garros, she beat Conchita Martinez for the first time after nine defeats.

One round later, she stunned Steffi Graf in straight sets, a result that might be written off as a fluke, except for the fact it was Coetzer's third triumph over Graf this year. And her 6-0, 6-1 decision over Graf in Berlin was the worst defeat of Graf's career.

"I know she has worked on changing her forehand, and obviously has put in many hours on her fitness," said Hingis of Coetzer. "She can stay out there forever, waiting for her opponent to make the error."

In fact, it was a match with Graf in the Canadian Open in August 1995 that initially signaled Coetzer's emergence. Coetzer had never beaten Graf, and when she saw the bracket, she got angry. She was sick of the same old results.

"I went into that match pretending that the past did not happen," Coetzer said. "I was making a leap of faith." The leap was rewarded with a breakthrough triumph, followed by victories over No. 4 Jana Novotna and No. 5 Mary Pierce.

Coetzer wound up getting blown out by Monica Seles in the finals in Seles' celebrated return to tennis, but it was nonetheless clear that the work with Hopper, whom she teamed with earlier that year, was paying off.

An elite-level fitness and tennis coach in his native Australia, Hopper's first step was to punish Coetzer's body. Near Hopper's Boca Raton home, she would run in the morning, lift weights and endure three 90-minute hitting sessions under the broiling Florida sun. Though Coetzer has been known for her conditioning, Hopper was demanding her to raise herself to an entirely new level.

"I was really desperate," Coetzer said. "I wasn't enjoying the game anymore. I kind of jumped into the deep end."

"She's worked incredibly hard," Hopper said. "Her ability to never, ever complain is just unbelievable."

Hopper reworked Coetzer's groundstrokes, allowing her to take a bigger swing, to disguise her shots and place them more effectively. As much as her work ethic, Hopper has tremendous respect for her willingness to overhaul her game in the middle of her career. "Not many players are willing to take that risk," Hopper said.

"I was able to get by for awhile just by being a scrambler, getting balls back," Coetzer said. "(But) when the bigger hitters started taking over, I started getting very upset. People were hitting too many winners. I didn't even feel competitive at times."

Coetzer started playing at age 4, on the court behind her family's home in South Africa's Free State. At first her father would send her to hit against a nearby wall, where she would play imaginary Wimbledons, all decked out in dress, headband and wristbands. One day she had had enough of the wall, and wanted some action.

"I went on the court and laid down on the back line of the service box," Coetzer said. "If I couldn't play, nobody was going to."

Coetzer has never won a Grand Slam, or even played in a Slam final. She would love to continue her ascension, but is anything but obsessed by it. Being regularly competitive, playing her best, is more a goal than being ranked No. 1.

The way Coetzer figures it, she has already far exceeded expectations. She fielded a congratulatory phone call from Nelson Mandela after Coetzer beat Graf in the French. She has even started a program for black youngsters in South Africa, called Learn Tennis, Love Tennis.

As she looks back on the greatest year of her tennis life, Coetzer's frustrations have gone the way of her previous tennis tag. The Nice Little Player Who Tries Hard? Not anymore.

"I feel like everything I do now is a bonus," Amanda Coetzer said.

THERE seems to be no stopping SA's Amanda Coetzer.

When the WTA Tour released its rankings yesterday, the diminutuve Coetzer was ranked at a career-high three in the world - without even hitting a ball.

The South African never played last week but moved ahead of Monica Seles, the only player in the top 10 she has never beaten.

The turnaround came because Coetzer has no points to defend until the end of the year while Seles, who did not play in Moscow last week, had points coming off.

It is not inconceivable that by the end of the year Coetzer could be ranked as high as two.

At the moment Jana Novotna occupies that position and has 3 639 points, just 323 more than the South African.

A good performance by Coetzer in Philadelphia next week and again at the WTA Championships in New York, could well see that gap disappear.

In addition, Novotna has points to defend which will be in the South African's favour.

Martina Hingis's number one spot though is not under siege. She has accumulated and unassailable 6 482 points.

Her dominance of the women's tour is even more remarkable when compared to men's number one Pete Sampras, who, despite having won seven tournaments this year, including two Grand Slams, has amassed 4 547 points.

Coetzer has won two tournaments this year - in Budapest and Luxembourg - and reached two Grand Slam semifinals - at the Australian and French Opens. - Sapa.

Coetzer Climbing the Tennis Ladder

Along with golfer Ernie Els, Amanda Coetzer has become South Africa's most visible professional athlete -- visible because of her distinctive looks and her increasing success on the women's tennis circuit.

Coetzer has risen so steadily in the rankings (she's currently a career-high No. 6) that many observers think she'll eventually become a household name, like that of Martina Hingis or Steffi Graf.

Coetzer (pronounced "koot-sur'') is best known for her victories over Graf the past couple years. Most recently, she ousted Graf in the quarterfinals of the French Open 6-1, 6-4 a match in which Graf made 64 unforced errors. Though Coetzer lost to Iva Majoli in the semifinals, her impressive showing at the French Open prompted South African president Nelson Mandela to call her.

"I got a message to call him back. I was really thrilled,'' says Coetzer, who is playing in next week's Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. "I called him, and we chatted. It was definitely the highlight of my whole career.''

At age 25, Coetzer seems to have the world of sports in perspective. She has won more than $2 million in nine years as a pro, and has captured more than 10 titles spanning singles and doubles, but she says she is not obsessed with winning -- nor in becoming the top-ranked player in the world.

"I have to be honest with you,'' she says. "That (being No. 1) has never really been a goal of mine. The most important goal is that I'm competitive.''

Coetzer's game is based on consistency. She does not push over opponents the way Hingis does. Coetzer's serve is neither fast nor powerful. One reporter described her French Open victory against Graf this way: "Coetzer doesn't win matches, she patiently lets her opponents lose them.''

"I think I've done well with what I have," says Coetzer, who is 5-foot-2 and weighs 120 pounds. "I've worked very hard the last couple of years gaining strength. . . . I know I can stay out there as long as it takes. Also, I think I move pretty well on the court."

If Coetzer wins one of tennis' four major tournaments -- or if she beats Hingis at any time -- she will cement her reputation as one of the game's hottest players. It's a sign of Coetzer's growing confidence that she thinks she can beat the top-ranked Hingis if the two should meet at the Bank of the West tournament.

"You have to try to take away her strength," Coetzer says. "Her strength is that she dictates well. She moves the ball around. She takes it early. To try to beat her would be to try and move the ball and mix it up a lot and try to use my topspin so she won't get to take the ball early."

Coetzer likes the type of hardcourt surface that's featured at Stanford's Taube Family Tennis Stadium, which could give her an advantage against Hingis. In fact, Coetzer is the only women's player slated to play the entire hardcourt season in North America.

"I think it's definitely my favorite surface," says Coetzer, who was raised in Hoopstad, South Africa, but has used Hilton Head Island, S.C., as a base the past two years."I grew up on hard courts."

Coetzer's first big win over Graf was on a hardcourt in 1995 in Toronto. The victory was right around the time that Graf's tax problems surfaced. "I thought maybe it was just luck," Coetzer says, that maybe she wasn't really all there. But being able to do it all over again, I was able to prove it wasn't just a one-day thing."

While Graf has been sidelined after knee surgery last month, Coetzer is seen as a steady top-10 player for years to come.

Can Coetzer help restore some of the glitz and excitement that women's tennis supposedly lacks? Asked whether "glamour" belongs on the women's tennis circuit, Coetzer says, "I definitely think it's got some part... It's a little bit of entertainment that we're in, and I think every player has something to offer, whether it's that aspect or an interesting personality or an interesting story the way they've grown up."

It's been a big year for Amanda Coetzer. In between beating the likes of Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis on the court and breaking into the top 10 for the first time in her career, the pint-sized tennis star has been house-hunting in Clifton.

Amanda took a few days' break from the hectic international tennis circuit recently to inspect her new multi-million-rand, four-bedroom penthouse in the heart of South Africa's playground for the rich and famous.

Not that she'll have much time to relax at her new home in the near future, for tennis is her highest priority and there is time for little else. "I haven't made a permanent move here (to Clifton) I'm just so busy playing tennis," said Amanda during a rare break in her schedule at her new "local", La Med.

A few days earlier, she had beaten world No 1 Hingis in a tournament in Leipzig in Germany. After her Clifton interlude, her schedule was to take her back to Germany, then Switzerland, Luxembourg, Philadelphia and New York.

"This year I've hardly had any time off. In fact it's only at the Grand Slam events that I've spent two weeks in one place.

"Buying a place in Clifton was a kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. I didn't even see it before I bought it (her elder sister, Martelle, a Cape Town doctor, helped scout around) but I'm extremely happy.

"I haven't really spent much time in Cape Town before only a few times in my life, in fact. But it's even more beautiful than what I remembered and I'd love to come here as often as I can," Amanda says.

She also has a home in Hilton Head, South Carolina, which serves as her base for the US segment of the women's tour. No doubt this accounts for her slight American twang.

But travelling on the European circuit has always been a bit of a problem for her.

"I'm in Europe for such long periods and being in so many different countries with different cultures all the time isn't easy. A lot of the time I've ended up playing in tournaments I didn't really want to play in just because I've had nowhere else to go.

"Now, with a base in Cape Town, I can hopefully come down here when I've got a few days between tournaments. It's just an overnight flight usually and there's no time difference so I don't have to worry about jet lag," she says.

At only 1,57 metres, Amanda is one of the smallest players on the circuit but her stature has grown tremendously in the past couple of years from being a player who was always there or thereabouts in the early rounds of a tournament to being a constant threat on any surface and capable of going all the way in a Grand Slam event.

On her way to achieving a career-high No 6 world ranking this year the highest by a South African woman ever she reached the semi-finals of the Australian and French opens, beat former No 1 Steffi Graf three times and, most recently, wiped the court with Hingis.

She has won R2,8-million in prize money alone this year and has a good chance of breaking into the top three by the end of the year.

In spite of all the glamour and travel, though, she remains very much the quiet, unaffected boeremeisie from her home town of Hoopstad, on the edge of the Karoo, where she grew up as the second youngest of four daughters to her lawyer father, Nico, and housewife mother, Suska.

She turns 26 later this month but must feel like something of a veteran, having turned professional in 1988 and being surrounded by the new breed of teenage queens such as Hingis, Anna Kournikova and Venus Williams.

"I don't feel as old as I am, " she giggles.

"There's a good vibe on the tour now. I won't say I make really close friendships but we all get along and maybe a few of us will go out to dinner once in a while.

"The younger players are more open and not that set in their ways. Five years ago, there was a different atmosphere in the locker room when the women's tour was dominated by a few intense rivalries among the top three or four players.

"But there's more depth now, with a lot of the players able to beat anyone in the top 10," she said.

Away from tennis, she likes to read, shop and surf the Internet. She always packs a computer along with her racquets so that she can e-mail her family and friends.

Amanda will be back in Cape Town from December 12-14 for the Nelson Mandela Tribute tournament at the Good Hope Centre, which will bring some of the biggest names here for no fee to raise money for the president's Children's Fund.

"The moment I heard about this tournament, I wanted to be part of it and to show my admiration for President Mandela," she said.

"I would have been a ball girl just to take part."

She is the tiniest player on the women's professional tennis circuit; but right now, few walk taller than Amanda Coetzer.

Year by year, since turning professional in 1988, the dainty little charmer from the Free State has grown in stature, reaching the point where she has beaten all but a handful of the world's top players and attained 10th spot on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) list - the highest achieved by a South African woman in the modern ranking system.

She has come a long way, indeed, since first picking up a tennis racket in the quiet backwater of Hoopstad more than 20 years ago - and she has got there by dint of dedication, determination and energy in abundance, all embraced in a heart that belies her diminutive 1,57 metres.

To date, Amanda has recorded well over 300 singles victories on the WTA Tour, and collected four singles and six doubles titles. She is first choice for her country when it comes to Fed Cup, and she represented South Africa at the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics.

About six weeks ago, Amanda crashed into the top ten for the first time when she won the Budapest Open, and her 12 singles wins last month earned her the WTA Chase Monthly Champion Award. But the best was yet to come. Last week, in the quarterfinals of the German Open, she handed Steffi Graf her biggest defeat. And she did it on clay, in front of Steffi's home crowd, allowing the German star just one game out of 13 and ending her seven-year domination of the event.

Ironically, it was a result that edged her down to 11th spot, replaced by France's Mary Pierce, who beat her in the semifinals.

Still, it was a performance to treasure.

It has all been pretty heady stuff, but Amanda's feet remain on the ground. She is as humble as ever she was. Refreshingly, there are no affectations, no tantrums, and there is none of the brashness that mars the images of so many young men, particularly, and women players on the circuit. She is without question South Africa's First Lady of Tennis - and the accent is on "lady".

Amanda is fashioned from good Afrikaner stock, with all the values that implies. Her parents are Suska and Nico, who is a prominent lawyer and former Free State tennis player. She is the third eldest of four daughters. The family is close-knit, and the dominant pattern has always been tennis. Isabel, married to Gustav Fichardt, who played at Wimbledon in 1988, is the eldest. Both professional coaches, they provide Amanda with a home base when the need arises. Next in line is Martelle, who is a doctor in Cape Town, and the youngest is Nicola, who like her sisters before her, attends Oranje Meisies Hoer. Isabel, Martelle and Amanda all played tennis in America. So they all had equal tennis opportunities.

But somehow, Amanda was different.

This week, her father opened a small window on the girl born 26 years ago in the small farming town surrounded by the flat mealie-lands of the north western Free State.

He said: " I think Amanda was about four when she first picked up a racket. She was too small to play with us on the clay court or with the ball machine, and I used to chase her away to hit against the wall.

"But she always wanted to play. I think a big thing in the early years is that I didn't overcoach Amanda, a mistake I made with her sisters.

"She has always been a good athlete. And she has always been tough -Êjust like her mother. But I think the one thing that has always set her apart, and it still does, is her incredible love for the game. She simply enjoys playing. She has never lost her hunger. We are all very proud of her, in every way."

Amanda has no stauncher support group than the family. They are always as close as the proximity of her cellphone, and often one or more members will be courtside.

Amanda is equally proud of her parents and prays tribute to them for the part they played, and still play, in her life.

"Their support has been just huge. They taught me about the game, and they created opportunities for me. I have been very fortunate in that I've always had the right people at the right time throughout my career."

"My sisters were pretty good, and I was too small, so it was the wall, hour after hour. But I didn't mind. I was always eager to play, and I had a wonderful imagination. I don't know how many "Wimbledon finals" I played on our court."

It wasn't until she started playing in the satellite tournaments that Amanda began to see her direction a little more clearly.

"About then I began to realise that tennis could take me places, and it did," she said.

After turning pro, Amanda made good progress. The steadiness that would become her trademark was there; but the shots were not yet telling enough to trouble the best.

Inevitably there were glitches, but eventually she gave emphatic notice that there was a new kid on the block when she beat Gabriela Sabatini in Boca Raton. That win, in 1992, was her first over a top three player.

The following year, she took her first title, in Melbourne, and since then no one has been safe. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Jennifer Capriati, Mary Pierce, Martina Hingis, Jana Novotna, Mary-Joe Fernandez and Steffi Graf are among those in the Coetzer collection.

For the sake of travel convenience, she based herself at Hilton Head Island in America. Even so, by the end of1994, the demanding tour schedule began to take its toll. Amanda had reached a career crisis. Fortunately her new coach Gavin Hopper - he is still with her - came to the rescue. "I was simply no longer enjoying my tennis," she said.

"I felt stagnant, mentally and physically. Gavin gave me direction and purpose again. He has vision, and he has been the main reason for the improvement in my game."

Amanda enjoys life. She is superfit - but sensibly so. She loves her food, but applies the same discipline to her diet as she does to every other facet of her life. It's all about control.

Her face will seldom mirror a moment of joy, or misery, on court. And often, at after-match press conferences, her matter-of-fact demeanour make even Bjorn Borg look animated by comparison.

That appraisal sparks her.

"Actually, I'm very emotional," she volleys back. "But I feel I need to keep it under control. It has to be channelled the right way. I need to use the energy positively."

To date, Amanda's best Grand Slam performance is last year's semi-final finish in the Australian Open.

AMANDA Coetzer believes attending tennis clinics is not enough. She wants to make a more lasting contribution to the improvement of the sport in SA and is prepared to back it up with hard cash for development.

Last Thursday, the world No 13 conducted a clinic at Adam's Mission, near Amanzimtoti, and expressed her surprise at the quality of talent.

"The whole group was pretty good and their enthusiasm was just incredible. Most of the kids were about nine or 10, and I was just amazed at the amount of talent," she enthused.

"There was one little girl who was rallying with me and that sort of skill can only come from hitting a lot of balls. That means someone has been passionate enough to go out there and help those kids on a regular basis.

"In this case it was Desmond Makhanya and his chidren Clifford and Zama, who should be encouraged. It's important for them not to rely on my making odd appearances and to get it going on a day-to-day basis.

"While I can't be there, I can contribute in other ways, as long as they keep doing the homework, " said the little South African.

Coetzer had, therefore, decided to make a substantial financial contribution in order for the facilities at Adam's Mission to be upgraded.

The clinic had been an uplifting experience for her. "In a short while I hope to see someone play internationally - someone who came through the programme," said Coetzer. - Sapa.