Schnyder crushed in Kloten
The Swiss number two, Patty Schnyder, failed to provide any local cheer at the Swisscom Challenge tennis tournament on Monday.
It took Russian teenager Nadia Petrova just 43 minutes to knock Schnyder out of the tournament in the first round.
“The match just went by and suddenly it was over,” a crestfallen Schnyder told swissinfo afterwards. “So I had very little chance of getting into the game. She just cruised past me.”
Following Martina’s Hingis late withdrawal from the tournament, hopes were high that Schnyder might finally improve on her previous showings at the Kloten tournament. But after being broken in her very first service game, the 22-year-old from Basel was unable to get herself back in the match, eventually crashing out 2-6, 0-6.
Lack of confidence
The result marks another setback in Schnyder’s bid to get back to her best. Once ranked number eight in the world, the Swiss player has spent much of this season battling against injury and her own lack of self-confidence, and is currently 47th in the world rankings.
“Not having the confidence on the big points was definitely a factor again today,” Schnyder said, “but Petrova also played very well, and the defeat wasn’t just down to me lacking confidence.”
Nevertheless Monday’s defeat against an inexperienced player ranked just one place above her will hardly help gain credibility for Schnyder’s claims that she can once again become a top 20 player.
Her early departure also continues a history of disappointing performances on home soil. Even when she was playing the best tennis of her career, Schnyder has never managed to progress beyond the second round in Kloten.
“I go on court here and I’m a little more nervous than in other tournaments,” Schnyder admits, “because I can feel the crowd behind me, willing me to win. But on the other hand it’s always a strong field here with some top players competing so it will always be hard to reach, say, the semi-finals.”
With Hingis out recovering from Sunday’s foot operation and Schnyder contemplating another early exit from Kloten, the Swiss tournament now has just one homegrown player remaining in the singles competition. After making it through the qualifying rounds, Lausanne teenager Marie-Gaïané Mikaelian is on Tuesday set to meet Russian world number 13 Elena Dementieva.
And then there was one
With Hingis out recovering from Sunday’s foot operation and Schnyder contemplating another early exit from Kloten, the Swiss tournament now has just one homegrown player remaining in the singles competition. After making it through the qualifying rounds, Lausanne teenager Marie-Gaïané Mikaelian is on Tuesday set to meet Russian world number 13 Elena Dementieva.
by Mark Ledsom, Kloten
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.