/ 25 June 1997

A good day for SA at Wimbledon

WEDNESDAY, 10.00AM:

TUESDAY was a good day for South Africa at Wimbledon with three out of the four singles players winning their first-round matches. When rain stalled play on Monday, sixth-seed Amanda Coetzer was locked 6-6 with Alexandra Fusai in their first-round bout, but on Tuesday, she resolved the tiebreak and won the second set 6-1.

Wayne Ferreira didn’t find it that easy — the 16th seed had to fight his way out of a weak position to win the round against unseeded Australian Scott Draper, 6-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0, 7-5. Ferreira faces another unseeded player, Rudolphe Gilbert of France, on Wednesday.

Joanette Kruger won her match against Stephanie De Ville of Belgium, 7-6, 6-3. This is Kruger’s first Wimbledon match win. Grant Stafford was the only South African to lose his match, he fell 2-6, 4-6,6-3, 6-2, 6-2 to Australian Patrick Rafter.