TENNIS EVERT CUP : Fernandez, Coetzer Have a Court Date

It’s not Steffi vs. Jennifer or even Monica vs. anybody, only two lawyers’ daughters you have to sue to get off the baseline.

Yes, it’s Mary Joe Fernandez, whose father is a lawyer in Miami, versus Amanda Coetzer, whose father is a lawyer in Hoopstad, South Africa, presenting final arguments today in the Matrix Essentials/Evert Cup.

Aside from two-fisted backhands, their permanent residency on the baseline and their fathers’ occupations, the only other thing Fernandez and Coetzer may have in common is that they are both pretty lucky neither Steffi Graf nor Jennifer Capriati were healthy enough to show up to play.

But they are here in the final and for that they give thanks. Coetzer in particular said she is pleased to be here.

“I’m just really happy,” said Coetzer, who defeated Stephanie Rottier, 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinals Saturday. “I’ve got nothing to lose. I can just go out and have fun.”

For Fernandez, well, getting into a final isn’t all that great for her anymore. At this point, she needs to start winning a few.

It has been 28 months since Fernandez won a Kraft Tour title, prompting a weekly query: So when are you going to win one?

“I get asked that question all the time,” said Fernandez, who had little trouble winning her semifinal with Helena Sukova, 6-3, 6-1.

“It’s always some new obstacle for me to surpass,” she said. “It’s annoying because I think I can compete with the top players.

“It’s a mental attitude really, (thinking) I’m here to win, not to see what happens.”

What happened against Sukova was that Fernandez played target practice. She slapped winners, many of them from the forehand side, past Sukova as she advanced to the net.

Of course, it might not have hurt that Sukova was playing on a sore right foot. After the match, Sukova revealed she played all week with a foot injury that Women’s Tennis Assn. trainer Joani Essenmacher believes to be either a stress fracture or a ligament strain.

Either way, it didn’t make Sukova feel any better. She fought off tears in the interview room when she brought up the subject of her foot.

Coetzer knows she may have to play a much bigger game in the final.

“I’ve got to play a lot more aggressive now,” she said. “I can’t be just on the defensive the whole time.”

Coetzer’s match with Rottier was numbing in its predictability, at least in style, with both players content to bang away from the baseline until somebody missed.

More often than not, it was Rottier, although it’s not as though she didn’t have her chances--there were 10 service breaks in the match.

Fernandez survived a nearly as erratic service against Sukova in a match lowlighted by eight service breaks, six during the first set.

Anyway, winning was good enough for Fernandez, especially since she doesn’t really like playing Sukova in the first place because she can either serve and volley or chip and charge.

“She can jerk you around,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez’s winless streak has already entered its third year. So when was that last time you won, Mary Joe?

“It’s been awhile,” she said with a thin smile.

It was a new answer to an old question.

Tennis Notes

It will be announced this week that Tracy Austin is going to play TeamTennis for Raleigh, N.C. . . . Role models: Amanda Coetzer said her favorite players growing up in Hoopstad, South Africa, were Chris Evert, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe.