Doha Open tournament Fifth seed Patty Schnyder defeated Aravane Rezai of france in 3 sets 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 to move into the tournament’s second round.

Quotes from Pattty after today’s match:

“The first match is always a bit difficult, but I think overall I played well”.

“Rezai played quite well in the second set and I had problems with my serve.”

Patty will now play Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues, a surprise 3-6 6-3 6-2 winner over American Meghann Shaughnessy in the second round. Patty has played Anabel Medina Garrigues twice before and the series is tied 1-1. Last time they played is in 2005 Berlin Open on a clay court and Patty won this match in two tough sets 7-6(2) 6-4.

Other players advanced to the next round are Kateryna Bondarenko, Maria Kirilenko,Eleni Daniilidou, Maria Elena Camerin and Alicia Molik.

Patty will play her second round match on Thursday.

Patty heads to Doha next. The draw for the $1.3 million Tier II Qatar Total Open in Doha has been released and Patty is the #5 seed.

Patty got a tough draw considering this is a Tier II tournament. In the first round Patty will face Aravane Rezai of France. If she wins her first round, in the second round she will have to face either the American Meghann Shuaghnessy or Anabel Medina Garrigues from Spain. Patty is seeded to meet top seed Justine Henin of Belgium in the quarters. Martina Hingis and Svetlana Kuznetsova are on the other half of the draw

Patty didn’t play this tournament last year and there are no ranking points to defend. Patty has played Doha once before in 2005 and got to the 2nd round.

Patty will play her first round on Tuesday.

The top four seeds playing in the tournament are No. 1 Justine Henin, second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 3 Martina Hingis and fourth-seeded Jelena Jankovic. Defending champion, Nadia Petrova, is not in the field this year. The tournament champion will earn $222,000.

Patty Schnyder lost to No.3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in the quarter finals of Dubai open in straight sets 3-6 4-6.

Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Amelie Mauresmo are other players that reached the semis

Stay tuned for Patty’s upcoming matches…

After disappointing early exits in the 2 previous tournaments, Patty overcame Australian Alicia Molik in 3 sets 4-6 6-2 6-4 to reach the quarters of Dubai Open.

In the first set Patty made lots of unnecessary errors including hitting 3 consecutive double faults at one point. The Australian capitalized Patty’s mistakes and lead the set 5-2, Patty made a mini come back attempt winning the next 2 games, but Alicia broke back in the last game and took the first set 6-4

Patty started slow in the second set..a clearly frustrated Patty even had to broke a racquet to calm herself down. That incident proved to be the tuning point, Patty won the next 4 games consecutively to win the set 6-2

In the third set Patty got an early break in the 3rd set which was enough to serve for the match at 5-4. Patty struggled to close out the match at 5-4 and had to serve 5 match points to win the match.

“I was really pleased the way I just kept fighting for every point because it was not easy,” said Hantuchova. “I wasn’t playing my best, especially in the first set, but I just tried to turn it around and find my rhythm on the shots. The one thing that got me through was my belief.

“We were both playing great at some stages and then playing horrible, but I was expecting it was going to be like that because Maria also goes for her shots and we both like to hit a lot of winners.”

In the quarters to be played tomorrow, Patty will play Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia; Patty has played Svetlana 6 times before and trials the series 2-4.  Last time they played was on clay in 2006 AMELIA ISLAND where Patty lost to Sevtlana.

Patty Schnyder playing the $1.5 million Dubai Open this week, defeated Italy’s Francesca Schiavone in 3 sets 6-7 6-3 6-3 in the first round of the Dubai Open.

Patty had a set point in the first set at 5-4, but Schiavone held off the service game and forced to a tie-break. The italian won the first set tie-break on her 4th set point.

Patty won the second set by breaking Schiavone’s serve twice in the first and last games.

Patty raced to a 3-1 lead in the 3rd set, but Schiavone got the break back, however she got broken in her next service game. Patty successfully closed out the match at 5-3.

Patty said,

“I’ve had some struggles and it was really important to get through a tough one,”.

“I had so many chances in the first set and didn’t do it. I’m really happy I got through.

“My serve was really good, and I was just staying in the match and fighting for every shot. That’s what you have to do when your confidence is not great. You have to hang in there and it will come back.”

The top four seeds playing this tournament are defending champion Justine Henin of Belgium, 2nd seed Amelie Mauresmo of France, the winner of last week’s Antwerp tournament and Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova is the third seed while Tokyo champion Martina Hingis of Switzerland is seeded four. Patty is seeded 6th for this tournament.

In the 2nd round Patty will play Alicia Molik of Australia. Patty has played Alicia 3 times before and leads the series 2-1, the last meeting was this year at the Australian Open in January. Patty won this match in 3 sets. Alicia Molik is still trying to regain the form that brought her to No.8 in the world before an inner ear infection sidelined her for months.

Patty didn’t play this tournament last year and there are no ranking points to defend.

Patty Schnyder defeated Belgium Kirsten Flipkens in straight sets 6-4 6-1 in her first round match in Proximus diamond games. Patty played a perfect first round to defeat the Belgian home favorite.

Buoyed by the home crowd, in the first set the Belgian was able to follow Patty, but in the second set, Patty played well and the Swiss handed Flipkens only one game: 6-4 and 6-1

In the 2nd round Patty will play either Tatiana Golovin or Katarina Srebotnik.

Other players that reached the second round include Anna Chakvetadze, Michaella Krajicek and Dinara Safina

Patty always played well in Antwerp and reached at least the quarterfinals every year since the tournament’s launch in 2002.

Patty will play her 2nd round match most probably on wednesday.

The main draw for the Proximus Diamond Games, a Tier II $600,000 tournament that will be played in Antwerp, Belgium has been released and Patty Schnyder is seeded 5th for this tournament. In the 1st round Patty will play local favorite, wildcard Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium. Patty will Play Kirsten for the first time. In the 2nd round Patty will play either Tatiana Golovin of France or Katarina Srebotnik from France. In the quarters Patty might have to face the no. 4 seed of the tournament #4 seed Russian Elena Dementieva, Semis possible meeting with the Belgium sweet heart and the second seed Kim Clijsters and Finals possibility of Amelie Mauresmo, the French second seed or Nadia Petrova of Russia.

The top 5 seeds playing in this tournament are Amelie Mauresmo, Kim Clijsters, Nadia Petrova, Elena Dementieva and Patty Schnyder. Other notable names in the draw include the rising Serb teen Ana Ivanovic and young russians Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze.

Last year Patty reached the quarters and there are 49 points to defend.

Patty will play her 1st round match on either Monday or Tuesday.

stay tuned for Patty’s match updates….

Patty Schnyder, the Swiss 6th seed has lost her 1st round to unseeded qualifier Ekaterina Bychkova of Russia by the score of 3-6 6-4 6-3 in 1 hour and 48 minutes. 

Patty overwhelmed her Russian opponent in the first set and won in 25 minutes. Patty lead the second set, but halfway through the set she didn’t serve well and lost her serve twice and allowed the 100th ranked russian to win the set 6-4 

Ekaterina lead the third set 3-0, the swiss attempted a brief come back but the russian was too strong in the end and won the third set 6-3 

Patty was unable to convert the numerous break point opportunities against the Russian, She was able to convert only 3 out of 11 break points.   For Ekaterina Bychkova, it was her biggest win since ousting defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova at the 2005 U.S. Open. 

Patty reached semi finals last year and had 88 points to defend. If Dinara Safina performs wellin the Paris Open Patty might slip in to 12th position in the WTA ranking. 

This is a disappointing loss for Patty but there is a long season ahead and hope Patty comes back strong in her  next tournament.

Stay tuned for Patty’s next tournament details…

The main draw for the Open Gaz de France in France, Paris has been released and Patty Schnyder is seeded 6th for this tournament. In the 1st round Patty will play a Qualifier, In the 2nd round Patty will play either Tatiana Golovin of France or Alize Cornet from France entered as a wildcard. In the quarters Patty might have to face the top seed of the tournament Justine Henin from Belgium, Semis Svetlana Kuznetsova and Finals possibility of Amelie Mauresmo, the French second seed or Nadia Petrova of Russia.

The top 5 seeds playing in this tournament are Justine Henin from Belgium, Amelie Mauresmo from France, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, Another russian Nadia Petrova, and Czech teen Nicole Vaidisova. Other notable names in the draw include Russians Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze.

Last year Patty reached the semis and lost to Mary Peirce. Patty has 88 points to defend.

Patty will play her 1st round match on either Monday or Tuesday.

Best of luck to Patty and stay tuned for Patty’s match updates….