US OPEN

September 1, 2000

Amanda Coetzer

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

AMANDA COETZER: A few points here in the first set as well. I certainly had my opportunities. The second set was very close. But I have to give it to her, she served really well during the match. I think that's what made the difference.

AMANDA COETZER: Yeah, she played really well at that stage. I probably could have put a little more pressure on her, but she did come up with two great games. I started off pretty well. I would have liked to have hit the ball a little bit better just to put more pressure on her. I think I probably could have done a little bit more, come to the net a little bit more, she definitely gave me the opportunity to do that. She doesn't hit the ball that hard. So, you know, just have to learn from it and hope I can do better in the future.

AMANDA COETZER: Yeah, I wouldn't say it's more difficult. Usually the opposite. Felt pretty good going into the match, yeah. She just won too many easy points off her serve. She aced me quite a bit and I think that's what made the difference.

AMANDA COETZER: I hope so. We'll try our best, yeah. And then I have a little bit of time off and then obviously I have to leave for the Olympics.

AMANDA COETZER: I think, you know, having been short all my life, it's something that I learned from a young age. You learn to adapt and you obviously develop a game around that. You develop a game around foot speed and so that's my -- that's how I rely on that most of all. The other thing I think that people probably look by would be I've seen other players that are small, you kind of just play defensive until you have an opportunity. You need to make quick decisions whenever you have that opportunity. So you often surprise opponents by a little bit of speed at the right time.

AMANDA COETZER: Yeah. You have to kind of be patient, counterpunch, counterpunch. But at some other point you have to come up with something, something different.

AMANDA COETZER: For me, it's to try to get into the point early on. Those type of players tend to be very good at like the -- getting you in a difficult position right after the first couple shots. They rely on a big serve, they wait for an easy return, then they try and put the ball away. So I feel if I can actually get into the point with them, my chances increase at actually winning the point. So that's my main goal.

AMANDA COETZER: In my shoes I think. Five one and a half.

AMANDA COETZER: That's hard to say. I think --.

AMANDA COETZER: Yeah, there are quite a few probably around 5'5".

AMANDA COETZER: I mean I think the way -- I would consider somebody like Hingis one of the smaller people.

AMANDA COETZER: Is she that tall?

AMANDA COETZER: But I think compared to the other players that are playing right now, I think she's done an incredible job with her game. So you just have to learn to use whatever you have in the most effective way.

AMANDA COETZER: I have no idea. A large majority.

AMANDA COETZER: Yes. It helped me on the serve I think most of all.

AMANDA COETZER: I don't look at it as my height when I'm getting aced all the time and I'm struggling to win my serve. I look at other players that are short, there are quite a few with a big serve. Like Lisa Raymond, she has a big serve and she certainly doesn't have the height of the Williams sisters. So I wouldn't blame it, a weak serve, strictly on my height.

AMANDA COETZER: I probably would first blame it on bad mechanics and stuff like that before I would blame it on my height. Like I said, I was short in Juniors, I was always the smallest. So it's just something that you kind of have to just play with. And it's probably -- my foot speed has probably helped me a lot more than what my serve has been.