Poor start for Swiss in Fed Cup

Schnyder's defeat comes after a recent run of successes Keystone

Patty Schnyder and Myriam Casanova have both lost their opening singles matches against Slovakia, in the first round of the Fed Cup's World Group.

Schnyder, ranked 17th in the world, was first on court. She was up against the 27-year-old Slovak, Janette Husarova (WTA 38), but went down 6-7, 7-5, 5-7.

The rubber was a tight affair with Husarova taking a 5-3 lead before heavy rain drove the players off the court.

The interruption seemed to affect the Slovak’s concentration more than Schnyder’s. The Swiss managed a rebreak to draw level and take the set into a tiebreak, before losing it 7-9.

The second set followed a similar pattern to the first with long baseline rallies dominating the play before Schnyder broke serve to level the scores at one set all.

The 24-year-old Schnyder, who has had a great run of form recently, went into the match having won her last six Fed Cup singles match on clay. And she made that form tell in the third set, serving at 5-4 before being broken.

Casanova

Myriam Casanova, fresh from her heroics at the WTA tournament in Budapest last week, put in another good performance against the Slovak number 1, Daniela Hantuchova.

But the 16-year-old (WTA 209) found Hantuchova (WTA 14) simply too strong, going down 4-6, 5-7.

Sunday’s matches will see Schnyder and Casanova pair up in the doubles against Hantuchova and Husarova. If the Swiss pair win, they will then need to take both reverse singles to advance to the next round.

swissinfo with agencies