 | Born: 22/10/71 Nationality: South African Seeded: 27 World ranking: 30 Australian Open best:
Quarter-final (2001) Recent record:
2003: 4th round
2002: 4th round
2001: Quarter-final |
Coetzer finished in the world's top 20 every year between 1992 and 2001, and although that record has slipped in the last two years she remains a fierce competitor. That is nowhere more true than at the Australian Open, where the South African's record is superb.
In the last eight years she has only once failed to make the last 16, with two semi-finals back in 1996 and 1997.
There is no escaping the fact that the 31-year-old Coetzer is a veteran, having turned professional in 1988.
And at just 5ft 2in she is always vulnerable to being overpowered by the new generation of players.
But the former world number three is still capable of raising her game and reached the final in Memphis last February before picking up her ninth career title in Acapulco the following month.
The American hardcourt season proved a let-down, with a quarter-final place in Los Angeles the only result of note.
After losing in the third round of the US Open Coetzer failed to win again in 2003 and she will be keen to get back to Melbourne to rediscover her form.
MMIX
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