Schnyder and Gagliardi knocked out of tennis championships

Two Swiss women's tennis players have been knocked out of tournaments in Portugal and the United States. Patty Schnyder was eliminated from the Amelia Island championship in Florida, while Emmanuelle Gagliardi crashed out in Estoril.

Schnyder went out in the second round to the 13th seeded Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia.Dokic took 70 minutes to claim a 7-5, 6-3 victory over her opponent.

At one point Schnyder looked liked gaining control of the match when she came from 5-2 down to pull even to 5-5 in the first set after a number of errors on Dokic’s part. But she wasn’t able to keep up the pressure on Dokic, who went on to win the last two games and take the next set.

In Estoril, Gagliardi had her hopes of progressing to the second round dashed when she was beaten 7-5, 6-4 by her Bulgarian opponent, Magdalena Maleeva.

But Switzerland still has hopes as far as the Florida tournament is concerned. World number one, Martina Hingis is scheduled to enter the competition in the second round after benefiting from a bye. She will face Spain’s Virginia Ruano Pascual on Wednesday.

swissinfo with agencies