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.