/ 25 May 1999

COETZER HAS IT ROUGH

AMANDA Coetzer faces an uphill battle in her first round match at the French Open tennis tournament which begins in Paris on Monday. The 14th seeded Coetzer has lost twice to her opponent, Japan’s Ai Sugiyama. However, should Coetzer get past Sugiyama, the way looks clear to the quarter-finals, where she would probably play second seed Lindsay Davenport. Coetzer made the semifinals at Roland Garros in 1997, losing to eventual champion Iva Majoli 7-5 in the third set. But last year she lost in the opening round to Swiss player Patty Schnyder, after holding three match points in the third set. Wayne Ferreira, unseeded this year, will meet a qualifier in his first-round contest but then comes up against Armenian Sargis Sargsian. In their only meeting to date, last year in Los Angeles, Sargsian came out on top rather easily — 6-1 6-2.