Celebrity Update: Amanda Coetzer

Amanda Coetzer (born 22 October 1971 in Hoopstad, South Africa) is a former professional tennis player from South Africa.

Coetzer turned professional in 1988 and retired in 2004. She won her first top-level singles title in 1993 in Melbourne, and her second later that year in Tokyo.

Coetzer entered the top-20 on the women's world rankings in 1992 and remained there for most of the next 10 years. She developed a reputation for regularly beating players who were higher ranked than her as she climbed to her career high ranking of World No. 3 in 1997. As a result of her many upset wins and her small size, she earned the nickname "The Little Assassin."

Career
At the Canadian Open in 1995, Coetzer defeated three players ranked in the world's top-5 – Steffi Graf (No. 1), Jana Novotná (No. 4) and Mary Pierce (No. 5) – before finally losing to Monica Seles in the final. The defeat of Graf ended a 32-match winning-streak for the German.

At the Australian Open in 1996, Coetzer became the first South African woman in the Open era to reach a Grand Slam semi-final, where she lost in three sets to Anke Huber.

1997 was the best season of Coetzer's career. In reaching the Australian Open semi-finals for the second consecutive year, she defeated World No. 1 Graf in the fourth round. She then beat Graf for a second time in the quarter-finals at Berlin, handing her her worst-ever loss by defeating her 6–0, 6–1 in just 56 minutes. And then in the quarter-finals of the French Open she defeated Graf yet again to become one of just six players to beat Graf three times in one year, and one of only four to defeat her more than once in Grand Slam play. Coetzer lost in the French Open semi-finals to eventual-champion Iva Majoli. Later in the year in Leipzig, Coetzer beat Martina Hingis who by then had taken over the World No. 1 ranking. Coetzer won two singles titles that year in Budapest and Luxembourg.

Coetzer won the biggest title of her career in 1998 at Hilton Head (Tier 1 event).

In 1999 Coetzer became the only player ever to defeat Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport while they were ranked No. 1.

In 2000, Coetzer teamed-up with Wayne Ferreira to win the Hopman Cup for South Africa. She also played of South Africa's Fed Cup team for six years and represented South Africa in the Olympic Games three times.

In 2001, she qualified for her ninth consecutive year-end championship.

In 2002, she obtained an invite from the Hong Kong Tennis Patrons' Association to play The Hong Kong Ladies Challenge 2002.

During her career, Coetzer won nine top-level singles titles and nine doubles titles. Her final singles title was won in Acapulco in 2003. Her career prize-money earnings totalled US$5,594,821.

Personal life
Coetzer is the daughter of Nico and Suska Coetzer. She started playing tennis at the age of 6. During her playing career she resided primarily in Hilton Head, South Carolina and was coached by Gavin Hopper. She is married to the Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan.

Grand Slam women's doubles final

Runner-up(1)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1993	US Open	Inés Gorrochategui	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Helena Suková	6–4, 6–2

Singles (9)

Legend
Tier I (1)
Tier II (1)
Tier III (3)
Tier IV & V (4)

Titles by Surface
Hard (2)
Clay (6)
Grass (0)
Carpet (1)

No.	Date	Tournament Name	Location	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	17 January 1993	Sunsmart Victorian Open	Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Naoko Sawamatsu	6–2, 6–3
2.	26 September 1993	Nichirei International Championships	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Kimiko Date	6-3, 6–2
3.	15 May 1994	BVV Prague Open	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Åsa Svensson	6–1, 7–6(14)
4.	27 April 1997	Budapest Lotto Open	Budapest, Hungary	Clay	Sabine Appelmans	6–1, 6–3
5.	26 October 1997	SEAT Open	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Carpet (I)	Barbara Paulus	6–4, 3–6, 7–5
6.	5 April 1998	Family Circle Magazine Cup	Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, US	Clay	Irina Spîrlea	6–3, 6–4
7.	21 May 2000	Mexx Benelux Open	Antwerp, Belgium	Clay	Cristina Torrens Valero	4–6, 6–2, 6–3
8.	4 March 2001	Abierto Mexicano Pegaso (1)	Acapulco, Mexico	Clay	Elena Dementieva	2–6, 6–1, 6–2
9.	2 March 2003	Abierto Mexicano Pegaso (2)	Acapulco, Mexico	Clay	Mariana Díaz-Oliva	7–5, 6–3

[edit] Doubles (9)

1992: Taranto (with Inés Gorrochategui)
1992: San Juan (with Elna Reinach)
1994: Prague (with Linda Harey Wild)
1995: Amelia Island (with Inés Gorrochategui)
1995: Berlin (with Inés Gorrochategui)

1996: Tokyo Nichirei International (with Mary Pierce)
1997: Budapest (with Alexandra Fusai)
2001: Oklahoma City (with Lori McNeil)
2001: Bahia (with Lori McNeil)

Runner-ups (26)

Singles (12)

1991: San Juan (lost to Julie Halard)
1993: Indian Wells (lost to Mary Joe Fernandez)
1994: Indian Wells (lost to Steffi Graf)
1995: Toronto (lost to Monica Seles)
1995: Brighton (lost to Mary Joe Fernandez)
1996: Oklahoma City (lost to Brenda Schultz McCarthy)

1997: Leipzig (lost to Jana Novotná)
1999: Tokyo Pan Pacific (lost to Martina Hingis)
1999: Oklahoma City (lost to Venus Williams)
2000: Berlin (lost to Conchita Martínez)
2001: Amelia Island (lost to Amélie Mauresmo)
2003: Memphis (lost to Lisa Raymond)

Doubles (14)

Grand slam events in boldface.

1992: Kitzbühel (with Wiltrud Probst)
1992: Taiwan (with Cammy MacGregor)
1993: Amelia Island (with Inés Gorrochategui)
1993: US Open (with Inés Gorrochategui)
1993: Tokyo Nichirei International (with Linda Harvey Wild)
1993: Oakland (with Inés Gorrochategui)
1994: Amelia Island (with Inés Gorrochategui)

1995: Tokyo Nichirei International (with Linda Harvey Wild)
1998: Rome (with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
1999: Oklahoma City (with Jessica Steck)
1999: Hamburg (with Jana Novotná)
1999: Tokyo Princess Cup (with Jelena Dokić)
2000: Berlin (with Corina Morariu)
2001: Strasbourg (with Lori McNeil)

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	Career SR
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	1R	2R	3R	SF	SF	4R	4R	2R	QF	4R	4R	2R	0 / 12
French Open	4R	1R	2R	3R	2R	4R	2R	4R	SF	1R	1R	3R	3R	1R	1R	A	0 / 15
Wimbledon	1R	2R	2R	A	2R	4R	2R	2R	2R	2R	3R	2R	3R	2R	2R	A	0 / 14
US Open	1R	1R	1R	3R	3R	QF	1R	QF	4R	QF	1R	3R	1R	3R	3R	A	0 / 15
SR	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 2	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 1	0 / 56

A = did not participate in the tournament.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

Record against other top players

As of 1 November 2010 Coetzer's win-loss record against certain players who have been ranked World No. 10 or higher is as follows:^[2] Players who have been ranked World No. 1 are in boldface.