Schnyder beat Henin-Hardenne and reached the final in Charleston
28th April 2006
Patty Schnyder reached the final at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston with an impressive three set win over the top-seeded Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne. It was the first win for Patty over the Belgian in the seventh match against her.
Henin-Hardenne, who held a 14-0 winning record in Charleston, started well in the match and broke the Swiss already in the first game. The defending champion from Belgium was the dominating player and won the first set deserved. In the second set Henin-Hardenne got some trouble with her serve due the windy conditions. Now she just made 30 percent of her first serve in play and the Swiss got more and more the control over the match. ” I had control of the match in the first set. I was playing pretty well and then I lost a bit of my concentration for a few games”, Henin-Hardenne said. “Then the match turned completely and she was having control of the points”.
After the lost second set the heat on the court affected the Belgian physically. Henin-Hardenne still won the first game in the decisiving third set but then the Swiss won four straight games to a 4-1 lead. After that Henin-Hardenne hadn’t power enough to fight back and the Swiss was on the road to the win. “This is huge”, Patty said after the match. “I’ve never beaten her, and I think she is the greatest clay-court player there is at the moment, and I think she’s one of the greatest champions that we have in the past years, and it’s just amazing how I could come back and win it at the end”.
” It’s always disappointing to lose…but that’s tennis”, the Belgian commentated. ” That’s life. You have to keep going”.
Patty will now play her 19th final in a WTA tournament. It will be the second final in Charleston for the Swiss. In 2002 she was the runner up to Croatia’s Iva Majoli.
The this years final opponent of the Swiss, who won 10 singles titles at the WTA tour so far, will be the second seeded Nadia Petrova. The Russian, who won three titles so far, is currently playing in great form, she won the last weeks clay-court tournament in Amelia Island. Patty met her eight times so far, the Swiss leads in the head-to head 5-3. The last two matches between them were in the end of the last year. Petrova won her first singles title in the final of the tournament in Linz against the Swiss. Two weeks later Patty took revenge at the WTA Tourchampionships in Los Angeles.
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