Interview with Craig Gabriel... It's been quite a year for Amanda Coetzer. Ranked at a career high six in the world, the South African has certainly earned her reputation as "The Little Assassin" with results such as her three wins over Steffi Graf this year. She won the Budapest Open, has reached five semifinals in 1997 (to 14 July) including the Australian and French Opens. She is the only player to have entered a hardcourt tournament every week leading up to the U.S. Open. She recently did a conference call in the United States and here are the highlights... Q. What the advantages and disadvantages are of playing on a hard court surface and who do you see as the top hard court players out there? COETZER: I think it is definitely my favorite surface. I think it is a lot easier to move on. I grew up on hard courts and I think it probably suits my movement very well. And, I think you have to be a fairly aggressive player. I also think it is a very versatile surface. Any type of player can play on it. I think, at the moment, I'd probably say Seles, Hingis, one of the toughest opponents on hard courts, Mary Pierce, I think, is tough. Anybody can do well on it. Q. Are you playing the best tennis of your career? I know you mentioned earlier in the year that your goal was to get in the top 10 and to do better in the Grand Slam events, and you have done that. Can you keep taking that step to go up to the next level? COETZER: I hope so. I think we are at an exciting time right now. There is a lot of movement going on right now in the top 10. I think a lot of players are hoping to get their rankings back up, so I think it is a pretty competitive group up there. But, I am excited to be a part of that group and I am excited to compete and trying to stay up there and even improve a little if I can. And, you know, definitely I feel like I am playing some of my best tennis. I feel I have gone up to another level both with my technical game, tactical game and also my mental application. Q. I want to ask you about your ties to South Africa. You mentioned that you have been living in Hilton Head or using that as your headquarters the last few years, but are the changes, or have the changes in your country affected you at all as an athlete even in terms of, for example, has Nelson Mandela had any contact with you? COETZER: Yeah, actually it is funny you asked. It has been tremendous the last few years. I think this started when were at the Olympics in 1992, that is when I first met President Mandela. It was a huge thrill for me. I think at that stage of my career, I was definitely in need of a bit of a boost and I think that really did it for me. It gave me something to look forward to and I started to make some improvements. It has meant a lot. I think also to be part of a great sporting country, I think we have some wonderful athletes at the moment and I really consider myself lucky to be a part of that group. And as far as President Mandela, I got a call from him after the French Open, a message to call him back. And, I was really, really thrilled. I called and had a chat. It has definitely been a highlight of my whole career. Q. What did you talk about? COETZER: We just spoke about the French Open. He congratulated me and wished me luck for Wimbledon and just had a bit of a chat. Q. You mentioned that there has been a lot of movement at the top in the tennis rankings recently. I wondered if the fact that Monica Seles has not been on the top of her game and Steffi Graf is out with an injury, Sanchez Vicario has dropped a little bit in the rankings, has that been encouraging to you that there is now a chance to get into the No. 1 or 2 spot where maybe several years ago it didn't look so likely? COETZER: I have to be honest with you, that has never really been a goal of mine. I think, for me, the most important goal is to know that I am competitive with those girls, and I think I have achieved that over the last couple of years probably. But, it is very competitive and I will never count any of those people out. I am sure Graf will be back. Sanchez is a very tough competitor. There are a lot of players up there that definitely have moved around a little bit. I think it makes it very exciting for me and also for the other players to really, really know we are competing out there and that there is a lot on the line. Q. Why hasn't becoming one or two been a specific goal of yours? COETZER: I think my whole career has been a very gradual process. When I first started I never even had the aspirations, like honestly, I can't really say to be a professional tennis player when I was young. It kind of all fell into place. Once I reach one goal, I am ready to move on to the next and that is how my whole career has been. I don't think I have really set specific spots on the ranking as my goal. I think the goal for me is to improve my game, and, once I do that, I look for the next step. So, I think it is a long way to go from where I am right now. But, it is exciting. So who knows. Q. You just mentioned that you didn't have any specific aspirations to be a pro tennis player when you were younger. What did you want to be and also can you imagine being a Martina Hingis where she was getting tennis balls fed at her when she was two years old? COETZER: Yeah, quite a contrast. Even though I mentioned that I probably didn't think that I'd be a professional tennis player, when I was young, I was in a similar type of situation. I started really young. My father taught me as well when I was young, I probably started hitting around - we had a court at home. I was playing tennis by the age of four or five or something like that. I am in the same boat in that case. But, I think it is very hard for me to imagine that somebody - I have to give Mrs. Hingis a lot of credit for having the vision at that young age, and for her daughter to become a champion one day, I have a lot of respect for that. The way I was brought up, the emphasis was a lot more on having fun and having tennis take me places, which it did. There was never a limit placed on it. It was always "take it as far as you can and get as much out of it as you can." Q. Could you walk away from it if something else interested you more? I mean, how far do you see yourself playing? COETZER: I am pretty obsessed about it. Since from a very young age I wanted to do it everyday, I wanted to improve a lot. So I think it will be tough for me to just walk away from it and just leave it. I think after you have spent your whole life doing something that you really enjoy, it will be tough to just walk away from it. I hope to be playing for quite a few more years, but you never know. Q. At 5'2" and 120 pounds are you at a physical disadvantage at all? I mean, do you have to compensate for lack of strength or do you have the strength that is maxed out to your potential? COETZER: I think I have done well with what I have and I have worked very hard the last couple of years gaining strength and being fit. So, I know I can stay out there as long as it takes. And, also, I think I move pretty well on the court. So, I definitely compensate quite a bit. I think I have a bit of a disadvantage. But, at the moment in women's tennis, I don't think it has bothered me that much because I don't think it is like the men's game where you have to have a huge serve to survive. I think you can find other ways of compensating for it. Q. Do you ever feel concerned about people like Martina Hingis, that they might be too young to be exposed to such pressures? COETZER: I think I was exposed to it. I think I can relate to it somehow, but not really, so it is really tough for me to say. I was out competing when I was 16, but I did it complete opposite ways than a lot of these girls are doing it. I went alone. I think when I started out we were forced to go because, being from South Africa, we were a bit isolated and I had to travel alone a lot of times when I was 16. And, I think that gave me a complete different perspective on the whole thing, taught me to mature probably a little bit quicker. But, I think it is tough for me to relate to somebody like Martina Hingis or a Capriati who was thrown into the limelight at that young age. I think that is a lot tougher to deal were. It is not so much the competing from being out on the Tour that is hard to deal with, but probably just the fame and the fortune at that young age. Q. When did you actually realize that you wanted to become a pro tennis player? COETZER: I think it was probably around when I was 15, 16 when I had the opportunity to go play some satellite events. Our tennis association sponsored a couple of us and they gave us the opportunity to go and play some satellite events and pick up some points and I think at that point I had to make it work because I decided to leave school and at that stage it was quite unheard of in the town that I grew up. And I think I just kind of had to really try to make it work because I would have been quite embarrassed to go back to school. Q. What did beating Steffi Graf mean to you personally? Do you think that it has had a carry-over positive effect? COETZER: I beat her the first time in 1995 in Canada and right after that week after that I had a very close match with her at the U.S. Open. So, I think that really, really meant a lot to me. But, you know, once again, beating her at the Australian Open, at a Grand Slam event, and then again at the French, I think really, really meant a lot to me because a lot of times these top players come out tops at the real big tournaments at the Grand Slams. She has got such a great record so it really meant a lot to me to do it at a very crucial time like that. Q. Was there something that happened in those matches, in terms of seizing control or staying ahead that maybe would not have been able to do earlier in your career? COETZER: When I face a player like that and you know that you can come back and knowing that you can win the match, really has been something that is very different for me. I felt like I have taken the next step to really feel like that when I walk on the court beating somebody like Steffi Graf. Q. Were you stunned when you first started beating Graf? COETZER: I was, actually. Once again, like I have to go back to the first time I beat her in Canada, I think, you know, it was just when the whole question about her tax problems started and I think a lot of times, it didn't really dawn on me because I kept thinking well, maybe it was just luck, maybe she really wasn't all there. And, I think being able to do it over and over again proved it to myself that I actually am competitive with her the way she plays and it wasn't just a one-day-thing. Q. I know you have done a little bit of modeling to promote the Tour for prints. You are viewed as one of the attractive players on the Tour. Do you feel comfortable that this is part of your image and that glamour has a role on the Tour or do you think people look at the tennis and simply appreciate it for that? COETZER: I think in a way it is flattering to me. I definitely think it has some part. I think we are a little bit in show business other than just going out there and competing. I think it is a little bit of entertainment that we are in and I think every player has something to offer whether it is that aspect or whether it is an interesting personality, or an interesting story, like the way they were brought up. I think each and every player has got something to offer and hopefully spectators can see that part and really get to know the players more.

Information Courtesy Cross Court Promotions 1996