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.
Sphere It
Patty played the first grandslam of the year seeded #8, but fell in the 4th round to the young Russian Opponet Anna Chakvetadze.
With an 2-6 7-6(4) 6-2 win over Italy’s Antonella Serra-Zanetti, Patty Schnyder reached the second round at the Championships in Wimbledon. In her first match on grass this season, Patty had problems to find her rhythm. The number eight seed Swiss lost the first set clear with 2-6 and also in the second set Patty was in trouble. The Italian was leading 5-4 and served already to the win of the match when Patty took her last chance to find back in the match. The Swiss broke back and won the second set in tiebreak 7-2. Now Patty had improved her game, in the third set she dominated clear and won the match deserved. Patty’s next opponent will be Severine Bremond. The 25-year-old French, who is currently the number 129 in the WTA- ranking, beat in the first round Anastasia Yakimova from Belarus in straight sets.
Patty Schnyder’s French Open campaign has ended at the hands of Venus Williams, going down in three sets 4-6 6-3 6-2 in a match that lasted just under two hours. Williams prevailed in the fourth-round match to extend her stranglehold over the Swiss player to an unblemished 8-0 head-to-head lead.
Patty Schnyder needed three sets to beat Julia Vakulenko from the Ukraine 2-6 7-5 6-0 in the third round at Roland Garros. Â In the first match of the day on court 2 Patty had a bad start into the match. The Swiss couldn’t found her rhythm and after 22 minutes she lost the first set clear 2-6. Patty made 17 unforced errors and hit only two winners in the first set. In the second set the Swiss improved her game and she broke Vakulenko to a 2-0 lead. The number 135 ranked Ukrainian fought back to a level at 4-4, but the Swiss broke her again and won the second set 7-5. In the deciding third set the world number 9 from Switzerland finally found her rhythm. Now she dominated the Ukrainian clear and after three breaks Patty was through to the fourth round.There the Swiss will meet a real though opponent. She will face the number 11 seeded Venus Williams from the US. In seven previous matches Patty never won against the former world number one, who is the currently number 13 in the WTA ranking. Their last match was two weeks ago in Rome, where the American won in three sets.