Ushering the clay season of the year, the Baush and Lomb Championships, a Tier II WTA event, started on April 3,2006 without most of the world’s top ten players.

With Russian Nadia Petrova, 7th in the world rankings leading the list of seeded at number one followed by Swiss’ top player and second seed for the tournament Patty Schnyder. Italian Francesca Schiavone is seeded 3rd, while Czech teenage sensation Nicole Vaidisova is seeded 4th. Fresh from winning Nasdaq 100, Svetlana Kuznetsova , who is touted to win the tournament is seeded 5th with fellow Russians Elena Likhovtseva is at 6th, and Dinara Safina is at 9th. Other seeded players in the top ten are Anna-Lena Groenefeld at 7th, Italian Flava Pennetta at 8th and Frenchwoman Natalie Dechy at 10th.

Of the upper tenth seeded players, tenth-seed Natalie Dechy was shown the exit door by Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual during their first round meeting. Next to follow were eighth-seed Flavia Penneta and sixth-seeded Elena Likhovtseva who were booted out by Ma. Elena Vesmina and Julia Schruff respectively in the second round. After winning their respective second round matches, ninth-seed Dinara Safina was beaten by seventh-seed Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the third round. Advancing to the quarterfinals, fifteenth-seed Lucie Safarova beat fellow Czech Nicole Vaidisova. Second-seed Patty Schnyder’s quest for a title for the season was ended by here loss to fifth-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals. In the other quarterfinal match, Francesca Schiavone made sure an Italian will be in the last four by dispatching seventh-seed German Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Schiavone will meet fifth-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals. Fifteenth-seed Czech Lucie Safarova beat American Jill Craybass to move to advance to her second semifinals of the season against top-seed Nadia Petrova.

The winner of the Bausch and Lomb Championships tournament takes home $95,500 while the runner-up takes home $48,900.

Patty Schnyder made a successful start in the this years claycourt season. After a first round bye at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island she beat Lisa Raymond from the US 6-2 6-2.

In the first set the Number 2 seed Swiss still had some problems with her serve, she placed just 43 percent of her first serve in play, in the second set she improves to 56 percent. But despite this trouble the Swiss lefthander always had the control over the match. Patty hit 5 aces and finished the match after only 53 minutes.

“It was not a really good start today,” the Swiss said, “She hit great shots at first and we had good rallies. I felt good, though, and I thought if I kept up my strong game I could control and win. It was my first time on clay and I moved well.”

In the third round Patty will face the 19-year-old Russian Vera Dushevina. The currently Number 51 in the ranking reached the third round with wins over her compatriot Ekaterina Bychkova and the Ukrainian lucky loser Alona Bondarenko. Patty met Dushevina never before. If the Swiss wins she could meet the Miami Champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.