SCHNYDER CLAIMS THE TITLE AT HER FOURTH ATTEMPT

by Barry Wood

Patty Schnyder had played the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic three times before, never getting beyond the semi-finals. Now she’s the champion, after beating 17-year old Tamira Paszek 6-3 6-0.

The victory was a milestone in more ways than one for Schnyder. It was the 500th singles victory of her career, and her 11th title. It had been a while since her last one, which was in Cincinnati back in July 2005. In fact, she had lost an amazing seven finals since then.

"I’m very happy and very proud. It’s a great feeling," said Schnyder. "I’m really happy I could carry my form over from the US Open, and the last three matches I played I had a great focus so it’s a great performance.

It was a very competitive match to begin with, with the second-seeded Swiss left-hander facing a break point in the first game but then breaking to lead 2-0 in the next. But her lead didn’t last for long, with Paszek breaking back in the next game on her seventh break point. It was good to watch, with both players dragging the other all over the court with a liberal dose of sharply-angles shots.

But once Schnyder broke again to lead 4-2 you could see Paszek’s level drop, and when Schnyder broke again to lead the second set 1-0 the writing was on the wall. When Paszek was broken again, at love, to fall behind 3-0 the outcome was no longer in doubt. In all, it took just 67 minutes.

"You always expect a tight match, even a three-setter, but we had big intensity in that first set and it was tough to maintain. I was also feeling my legs with all the weeks that I’ve played, so I’m very happy it was fast at the end."

Paszek was also weary after so much tennis. Leading into the final, her matches had taken seven hours 40 minutes. Schnyder, with a first round bye, had played for three hours 31.

"I felt a bit tired today," Paszek admitted. "But Patty played an amazing game. She played great tennis today so it was really tough for me. We had very long rallies and I was really tired in the end. But I had a great week and I’m really happy with that."

While the singles final might have been rather one-sided, the doubles certainly wasn’t. It was won by Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Shuai Peng from China, but only just. They defeated Marta Domachowska of Poland and Russia’s Nadia Petrova, taking two hours eight-minutes to win 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-3) 10-7 in what was a terrific match from beginning to end.

Comments:

Sinan Issa | 14 Sep 2008 06:44 pm

1 - Go Patty! Auch brave Tamira

Yudi | 14 Sep 2008 10:26 pm

2 - I knew it! You will win this tittle this year Patty! Congratulations!..Tamira, still have a chance for upcoming years, you are already a new star, keep going! Bravo to both of you.

Jean-Paul | 15 Sep 2008 12:14 am

3 - PATTY, you're the best ever!!!!!!!

Kang,Duanxu | 15 Sep 2008 12:34 am

4 - Congratulations!Peng and Hsieh.It's areally a long time no seeing your best performance.Keep going!!!Better performances next times!!!

London | 15 Sep 2008 01:17 am

5 - Great job Patty, keep up the good work!

johnny reyes | 15 Sep 2008 11:00 am

6 - you deserved the win patty..i am a fan from the philippines..goodluck on your other tournaments..