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…