Playing her first WTA main-draw match since 2011, former world No.7 Patty Schnyder fell to Katerina Siniakova 2-6 7-5 6-4 as a wildcard at the Ladies Championship Gstaad, in a battle that lasted two hours and 29 minutes.
In the first-round match postponed all the way from Tuesday due to rainy weather, the 37-year-old Schnyder went through the opening set without dropping serve, only to experience another rain delay at 1-1 in the second set.
Swiss friend to me in chat "I see Siniakova-Schnyder replay on TV, is it a replay from years ago or did I miss something???" ????
— Marco (@Trih_) July 14, 2016
Luckily, the match continued on the same day, with Czech Siniakova taking charge from 4-all, by breaking Schnyder’s serve to force the decider after three more games.
The third set started with Siniakova breaking the world No.338 Schnyder’s serve, but Schnyder broke right back and the scenario repeated several more times in the set. When Siniakova went up a break at 5-4, Schnyder underdelivered and handed victory to her opponent.
The 11-time WTA tournament winner, mother of one-and-a-half-year-old girl Kim Ayla, started her career all over again in 2015 in ITF events and has won Bastad and Prague since the comeback.
The Ladies Championship Gstaad top seed Timea Bacsinszky plays her second-round match against Mandy Minella on Friday, while second-seeded Jelena Jankovic was upset today by junior French Open champion, Swiss world No.797(!) Rebeka Masarova, born in 1999, with $2,271 career prize money. (photos: Jimmie48)
