Patty Schnyder

Patty Schnyder

Country (sports)	Switzerland
Residence	Basel, Switzerland
Born	(1978-12-14) 14 December 1978 Basel, Switzerland
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Turned pro	1994
Retired	2011–2015
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$8,432,332
Singles
Career record	597–387 (60.67%)
Career titles	11 WTA, 5 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 7 (14 November 2005)
Current ranking	No. 337 (1 August 2016)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	SF (2004)
French Open	QF (1998, 2008)
Wimbledon	4R (2007)
US Open	QF (1998, 2008)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	RR (2005)
Doubles
Career record	230–242
Career titles	5 WTA
Highest ranking	No. 15 (6 June 2005)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2009)
French Open	SF (2005)
Wimbledon	3R (2004)
US Open	SF (2004)
Mixed doubles
Career record	3–6
Career titles	0
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2009)
French Open	1R (2010)
Wimbledon	2R (1998)
US Open	1R (2004, 2009)
Team competitions
Fed Cup	F (1998)
Last updated on: 6 August 2016.

Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978^[1]) is a Swiss professional tennis player. She reached number 7 in the world rankings. She twice defeated a reigning world no. 1 player in her career: Martina Hingis at the 1998 Grand Slam Cup and Jennifer Capriati at the 2002 Family Circle Cup. In addition, she defeated former number 1s Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Amélie Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova, Jelena Janković, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki.

During her career she reached six Grand Slam singles quarterfinals and one Grand Slam singles semifinal. She won 11 WTA singles titles and 5 WTA doubles titles and earned over US$8.4 million in prize money.^[2]

Career

In 1996, Schnyder made her Grand Slam main-draw debut at the French Open. In 1997, she quickly rose up through the rankings, and by August 1998 she had entered the WTA top 10. However, Schnyder fell out of the top 10 in April 1999, and spent the next six years ranked in the 15–30 range before re-entering the top 10 in May 2005.

In December 2003, Schnyder married Rainer Hofmann, who had accompanied her on the WTA tour since 1999 and became her full-time tennis coach in early 2003.

Schnyder won 11 singles titles, including a victory in Zürich (Tier I Event) over American former no.1 Lindsay Davenport, and 5 doubles titles. Her first title on U.S. soil came in August 2005, when she won at Cincinnati's Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open. Schnyder is perhaps best known for defeating 4 top-10 players consecutively, including Serena Williams and then-world no.1 Jennifer Capriati, in 2002 at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, which is the largest women-only tennis event held in the United States.

Schnyder's best Grand Slam performance came at the 2004 Australian Open, where she reached the semifinals, before falling to Kim Clijsters. Later that season, she also reached the semifinals at the Tier 1 tournaments in Charleston and Zurich, two large WTA events where Schnyder has compiled an excellent record through the years.

2005 was Schnyder's most consistent overall season to date. She reached five tour finals, winning two of them (Gold Coast and Cincinnati, both Tier 3 events). She was runner-up at the Tier I events Rome (to Amélie Mauresmo) and Zurich (to Lindsay Davenport). She also reached the final in Linz (Tier 2), falling to Nadia Petrova. She reached the career high of world no. 7 after the end-of-season WTA Tour Championships.

2006 proved to be a good season for Schnyder also, staying within the top 10 and reaching the finals in Charleston (defeating top seed and defending champion Justine Henin in the semifinals and also ending Henin's winning streak on clay, though Schnyder lost to Petrova in the final), and in Stanford (falling to top seed and defending champion Kim Clijsters).

Patty Schnyder at the 2007 Australian Open.

Schnyder had a mediocre year in 2007, where she lost her top-10 ranking. First, she obtained an invitation to play in the 2007 Watsons Water Champions Challenge. She reached the fourth round of the Australian Open, where she lost to Anna Chakvetadze, 4–6, 1–6, after leading 4–1 in the first set. At the French Open, she managed to reach the fourth round, where she had two match points against Maria Sharapova, but ended up losing 7–9 in the final set. At Wimbledon, she was beaten in the fourth round by no. 1 Justine Henin in straight sets. At the Acura Classic in July, she reached the final, beating former no. 1 and compatriot Martina Hingis in three sets, and Russian Elena Dementieva, along the way, before losing to Sharapova again in three sets. Schnyder briefly moved up due to this. However, at the US Open, she lost in the third round to the unseeded Austrian Tamira Paszek in a final set tie-break, again wasting leads. After that, she played at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, where she lost to Ana Ivanovic. She finished her year with a run to the Generali Ladies Linz final, beating Chakvetadze in the quarterfinals and Marion Bartoli in the semifinals, before convincingly losing in the final to Hantuchová, 4–6, 2–6.

Schnyder began 2008 by beating Amélie Mauresmo in the quarterfinals of the Mondial Women's Hardcourts tournament in the Gold Coast before losing to Li Na in the semifinals. At the Australian Open, she lost in the second round to Australian Casey Dellacqua, 6–4, 5–7, 6–8. She then lost in the second round of the Proximus Diamond Games to eventual finalist Karin Knapp, losing in a final-set tiebreak. She entered the Qatar Total Open and beat Paszek easily, 6–4, 6–0. She lost to Slovakia's Dominika Cibulková in the second round, 4–6, 3–6. Schnyder then competed in the Bangalore Open, a Tier II event in Bangalore, India. She defeated Akgul Amanmuradova, in the quarterfinals, and then managed to beat Yan Zi, in the semifinal. However, she lost to Serena Williams in the final in straight sets.

Schnyder at the 2008 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament.

Schnyder again lost to Casey Dellacqua at Wimbledon in the first round. She played an epic match, but lost 4–6, 6–3, 1–6. Alongside Emmanuelle Gagliardi, Schnyder played for her team in the 2008 Summer Olympics.^[3] At the US Open, Schnyder was seeded 15th. She beat Katarina Srebotnik in the fourth round to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time in 10 years, where she lost to fifth seeded Elena Dementieva. At the 2008 Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic, Schnyder won her first title in over three years when she defeated Tamira Paszek in the final in two sets. At the 2009 Madrid Masters, Schnyder defeated world no. 10 Nadia Petrova in the third round and world no. 4 Jelena Janković in the quarterfinals, but lost to world no. 1 Dinara Safina in the semifinals.

2010 was a tough year for Patty. For the first time since 1996, she did not play in the Australian Open, due to injury. But, for the second year in a row, she made it to the final in Budapest against Ágnes Szávay, but again lost. She lost two match points in the third round of the US Open and double-faulted on match point against Yanina Wickmayer. She again made her second final of the year in Linz, but suffered an upset at the hands of Ana Ivanovic, losing in straight sets in just 47 minutes.^[4]

Schnyder did not play at the beginning of the 2011 season, prior to the 2011 Australian Open, due to illness. At the Australian Open, she lost to the qualifier Lesia Tsurenko in the first round. In a March 2011 Bleacher report, Schnyder was listed as one of ten most underrated players on the WTA Tour. Schnyder signaled, after disappointing first-round losses in both singles and doubles at the Family Circle Cup, that she would indeed be retiring sometime that year. Schnyder proved in April that she was still Switzerland's no. 1 women's tennis player when she, along with Timea Bacsinszky, helped propel Switzerland back into World Group II at the Fed Cup. She announced her retirement in May 2011.^[5]

In 2015 Schnyder returned to the professional circuit and competed in International Tennis Federation (ITF) Future tournaments in Darmstadt, Germany (July) and Oldenzaal, Netherlands (August).^[6] She took her first title of her comeback in September when she won the $10,000 ITF Future tournament in Prague,^[7] without losing a set all week. She made her second final of her comeback in Bangkok, losing to Kaia Kanepi.

She made her comeback to the WTA World Tour at the 2016 Volvo Car Open as wildcard, where she lost to number three seed, Samantha Crawford in the first round, 2–6, 6–1, 2–6.

WTA finals

Singles (11–16)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	15 September 1996	Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic	Clay	Ruxandra Dragomir	2–6, 6–3, 4–6
Winner	1.	18 January 1998	Hobart, Australia	Hard	Dominique van Roost	6–3, 6–2
Winner	2.	22 February 1998	Hannover, Germany	Carpet (i)	Jana Novotná	6–0, 3–6, 7–5
Winner	3.	24 May 1998	Madrid, Spain	Clay	Dominique van Roost	3–6, 6–4, 6–0
Winner	4.	12 July 1998	Maria Lankowitz, Austria	Clay	Gala León García	6–2, 4–6, 6–3
Winner	5.	19 July 1998	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Barbara Schett	6–1, 5–7, 6–2
Runner-up	2.	28 September 1998	Munich, Germany	Hard (i)	Venus Williams	2–6, 6–3, 2–6
Winner	6.	10 January 1999	Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Mary Pierce	4–6, 7–6(7–5), 6–2
Runner-up	3.	16 July 2000	Klagenfurt, Austria	Clay	Barbara Schett	7–5, 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up	4.	12 July 2001	Vienna, Austria	Clay	Iroda Tulyaganova	3–6, 2–6
Winner	7.	11 November 2001	Pattaya City, Thailand	Hard	Henrieta Nagyová	6–0, 6–4
Runner-up	5.	21 April 2002	Hilton Head, South Carolina, USA	Clay	Iva Majoli	6–7(5–7), 4–6
Winner	8.	20 October 2002	Zürich, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Lindsay Davenport	6–7(5–7), 7–6(10–8), 6–3
Winner	9.	8 January 2005	Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Samantha Stosur	1–6, 6–3, 7–5
Runner-up	6.	15 May 2005	Rome, Italy	Clay	Amélie Mauresmo	6–2, 3–6, 4–6
Winner	10.	24 July 2005	Cincinnati, USA	Hard	Akiko Morigami	6–4, 6–0
Runner-up	7.	23 October 2005	Zürich, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Lindsay Davenport	6–7(5–7), 3–6
Runner-up	8.	30 October 2005	Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Nadia Petrova	6–4, 3–6, 1–6
Runner-up	9.	16 April 2006	Charleston, South Carolina, USA	Clay	Nadia Petrova	3–6, 6–4, 1–6
Runner-up	10.	30 July 2006	Stanford, California, USA	Hard	Kim Clijsters	4–6, 2–6
Runner-up	11.	16 April 2007	San Diego, California, USA	Hard	Maria Sharapova	2–6, 6–3, 0–6
Runner-up	12.	28 October 2007	Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Daniela Hantuchová	4–6, 2–6
Runner-up	13.	9 March 2008	Bangalore, India	Hard	Serena Williams	5–7, 3–6
Winner	11.	8 September 2008	Bali, Indonesia	Hard	Tamira Paszek	6–3, 6–0
Runner-up	14.	12 July 2009	Budapest, Hungary	Clay	Ágnes Szávay	6–2, 4–6, 2–6
Runner-up	15.	11 July 2010	Budapest, Hungary	Clay	Ágnes Szávay	2–6, 4–6
Runner-up	16.	17 October 2010	Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Ana Ivanovic	1–6, 2–6

Doubles (5–11)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	6 April 1998	Amelia Island, United States	Clay	Barbara Schett	Sandra Cacic Mary Pierce	6–7(5–7), 6–4, 6–7(5–7)
Winner	1.	3 May 1998	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Barbara Schett	Martina Hingis Jana Novotná	7–6, 3–6, 6–3
Runner-up	2.	19 July 1998	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Barbara Schett	Elena Pampoulova Elena Pampoulova	4–6, 2–6
Runner-up	3.	4 April 1999	Hilton Head, United States	Clay	Barbara Schett	Elena Likhovtseva Jana Novotná	1–6, 4–6
Runner-up	4.	16 July 2000	Klagenfurt, Austria	Clay	Barbara Schett	Laura Montalvo Paola Suárez	6–7(5–7), 1–6
Runner-up	5.	28 October 2001	Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Hard (i)	Bianka Lamade	Elena Bovina Daniela Hantuchová	3–6, 3–6
Winner	2.	17 February 2002	Antwerp, Belgium	Carpet	Magdalena Maleeva	Nathalie Dechy Meilen Tu	6–3, 6–7, 6–3
Winner	3.	9 February 2003	Paris, France	Carpet	Barbara Schett	Marion Bartoli Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro	2–6, 6–2, 7–6
Runner-up	6.	28 April 2003	Bol, Croatia	Clay	Emmanuelle Gagliardi	Petra Mandula Patricia Wartusch	3–6, 2–6
Winner	4.	15 February 2004	Paris, France	Carpet	Barbara Schett	Silvia Farina Elia Francesca Schiavone	6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	7.	31 October 2004	Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Nathalie Dechy	Janette Husárová Elena Likhovtseva	2–6, 5–7
Runner-up	8.	10 April 2005	Amelia Island, United States	Green Clay	Květa Peschke	Bryanne Stewart Samantha Stosur	4–6, 2–6
Winner	5.	5 October 2008	Stuttgart, Germany	Hard	Anna-Lena Grönefeld	Květa Peschke Rennae Stubbs	6–2, 6–4
Runner-up	9.	19 October 2008	Zürich, Switzerland	Hard (i)	Anna-Lena Grönefeld	Cara Black Liezel Huber	1–6, 6–7(3–7)
Runner-up	10.	19 April 2009	Charleston, United States	Clay	Līga Dekmeijere	Bethanie Mattek-Sands Nadia Petrova	6–7(5–7), 6–2, [11–9]
Runner-up	11.	27 July 2009	Istanbul, Turkey	Hard	Julia Görges	Lucie Hradecká Renata Voráčová	6–2, 3–6, [10–12]

ITF finals (5–4)

Singles (5–4)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	4 May 1995	Nitra, Slovakia	Clay	Bárbara Castro	1–6, 6–2, 6–3
Winner	2.	21 May 1995	Prešov, Slovak Republic	Clay	Jana Ondrouchová	6–1, 6–0
Winner	3.	25 June 1995	Cureglia, Switzerland	Clay	Camilla Kremer	6–2, 6–1
Runner-up	1.	000000001995-08-28-000028 August 1995	Athens, Greece	Clay	Henrieta Nagyová	2–6, 0–6
Runner-up	2.	21 April 1996	Murcia, Spain	Clay	Elena Pampoulova	4–6, 3–6
Runner-up	3.	02 September 1996	Bratislava, Slovakia	Clay	Henrieta Nagyová	0–6, 4–6
Winner	4.	6 September 2015	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Zuzana Luknárová	6–1, 6–2
Runner-up	4.	000000002015-12-19-000019 December 2015	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard	Kaia Kanepi	3–6, 3–6
Winner	5.	22 May 2016	Båstad, Sweden	Clay	Melanie Stokke	6–1, 6–3

Singles performance timeline

This table is current through Schnyder's retirement on 28 May 2011.

Head-to-head vs. top 10 ranked players

Player	Record	W%	Hardcourt	Clay	Grass	Carpet
Number 1 ranked players
/ Steffi Graf	1–0	100%	1–0	0–0	0–0	0–0
Martina Hingis	3–2	60%	2–1	1–0	0–0	0–1
/ Ana Ivanovic	5–5	50%	4–2	1–3	0–0	0–0
/ Jelena Janković	2–3	40%	1–2	1–1	0–0	0–0
Serena Williams	4–8	33.4%	0–6	3–0	0–0	1–2
Kim Clijsters	3–6	33.4%	1–4	1–0	1–0	0–2
Amélie Mauresmo	6–13	31.6%	3–7	3–3	0–0	0–3
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	2–6	25%	0–2	2–3	0–0	0–1
Jennifer Capriati	1–3	25%	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–0
Caroline Wozniacki	1–4	20%	1–2	0–2	0–0	0–0
Lindsay Davenport	2–10	16.7%	0–7	1–2	0–1	1–0
Maria Sharapova	1–7	12.5%	0–4	1–2	0–1	0–0
Justine Henin	1–8	11.2%	0–2	1–4	0–1	0–1
// Monica Seles	0–3	0%	0–2	0–1	0–0	0–0
Dinara Safina	0–4	0%	0–1	0–2	0–0	0–1
Venus Williams	0–11	0%	0–6	0–5	0–0	0–0
Number 2 ranked players
Agnieszka Radwańska	2–1	66.7%	0–1	2–0	0–0	0–0
Anastasia Myskina	3–2	60%	3–1	0–0	0–1	0–0
Petra Kvitová	1–1	50%	1–1	0–0	0–0	0–0
Svetlana Kuznetsova	3–4	42.9%	1–2	2–2	0–0	0–0
Li Na	2–3	40%	2–2	0–1	0–0	0–0
Conchita Martínez	3–8	27.3%	1–2	1–3	0–1	1–2
/ Jana Novotná	2–6	25%	1–2	0–3	0–0	1–1
Vera Zvonareva	1–3	25%	1–0	0–3	0–0	0–0
Simona Halep	0–1	0%	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–0
Number 3 ranked players
Nathalie Tauziat	1–0	100%	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–0
Nadia Petrova	8–7	53.4%	6–6	2–1	0–0	0–0
Elena Dementieva	7–10	41.2%	4–4	1–3	0–0	2–3
Amanda Coetzer	2–6	25%	0–5	2–0	0–0	0–1
Mary Pierce	2–7	22.3%	1–1	1–3	0–1	0–2
Number 4 ranked players
/ Helena Suková	2–0	100%	1–0	0–0	1–0	0–0
/ Iva Majoli	4–1	80%	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–0
Magdalena Maleeva	4–3	57.1%	4–0	0–1	0–0	0–2
Samantha Stosur	2–2	50%	1–1	1–1	0–0	0–0
Mary Joe Fernández	1–1	50%	1–1	0–0	0–0	0–0
Francesca Schiavone	4–5	44.5%	4–4	0–0	0–0	0–1
/ Anke Huber	1–2	33.4%	0–2	1–0	0–0	0–0
/ Jelena Dokić	1–4	20%	0–1	0–3	0–0	1–0
Number 5 ranked players
Anna Chakvetadze	2–1	66.7%	1–1	0–0	0–0	1–0
Sara Errani	1–1	50%	0–1	1–0	0–0	0–0
Lucie Šafářová	2–2	50%	2–2	0–0	0–0	0–0
Daniela Hantuchová	9–10	47.4%	5–10	2–0	0–0	2–0
Number 6 ranked players
Flavia Pennetta	3–0	100%	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–0
Chanda Rubin	3–1	75%	2–1	0–0	0–0	1–0
Number 7 ranked players
Julie Halard-Decugis	3–0	100%	1–0	2–0	0–0	0–0
Irina Spîrlea	1–0	100%	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–0
Nicole Vaidišová	1–0	100%	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–0
Marion Bartoli	5–1	83.3%	4–1	1–0	0–0	0–0
Barbara Schett	5–4	55.6%	1–1	4–1	0–0	0–2
Number 8 ranked players
Alicia Molik	4–1	80%	4–1	0–0	0–0	0–0
Ai Sugiyama	2–4	33.3%	1–2	0–1	0–1	1–0
Anna Kournikova	1–4	20%	0–0	1–4	0–0	0–0
Number 9 ranked players
Andrea Petkovic	2–0	100%	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–0
Lori McNeil	1–0	100%	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–0
Dominique Monami	4–1	80%	2–0	1–0	0–0	1–1
Roberta Vinci	3–1	75%	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–0
Sandrine Testud	4–3	57.1%	1–2	3–0	0–0	0–1
Brenda Schultz-McCarthy	1–1	50%	1–0	0–1	0–0	0–0
Paola Suarez	4–5	44.4%	4–0	0–3	0–1	0–1
Number 10 ranked players
Barbara Paulus	1–0	100%	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–0
Timea Bacsinszky	1–0	100%	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–0
/ Karina Habšudová	3–1	75%	2–0	0–0	1–0	0–1
Dominika Cibulkova	0–1	0%	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0
Maria Kirilenko	0–1	0%	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0
Total	154–213	42%	82–110 (42.7%)	51–65 (44%)	4–9 (30.8%)	16–29 (35.6%)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Patty Schnyder.

• Patty Schnyder at the Women's Tennis Association
• Patty Schnyder at the International Tennis Federation
• Patty Schnyder at the Fed Cup
  

Women's Tennis Association: Top Swiss female singles tennis players as of 5 December 2016
1. Timea Bacsinszky (15 ) 2. Belinda Bencic (43 ) 3. Viktorija Golubic (56 ) 4. Stefanie Vögele (114 ) 5. Conny Perrin (181 )
6. Amra Sadiković (184 ) 7. Jil Teichmann (209 ) 8. Patty Schnyder (299 ) 9. Rebeka Masarova (314 ) 10. Romina Oprandi (394 )