By Saumojyoti Singha Choudhury, IANS
Bangalore : World No.10 Patty Schnyder, just like old wine, is getting better by the day. Though the charismatic Swiss player made her Grand Slam debut 12 years ago, she is yet to conquer that frontier. But the good news is, she believes her best is yet to come.
Schnyder made her Grand Slam debut at the French Open in 1996 and her best to-date is a semi-final appearance at the 2004 Australian Open. Her cupboard, however, is not bare for she has 10 WTA singles titles and four doubles titles. But a Grand Slam title, expectedly, is her major and ultimate goal.
“Right now, I am playing the best tennis of my life. However, winning a Grand Slam title is my dream and surely I am not done yet,” Schnyder told IANS Thursday.
The 29-year-old has seen a lot in her life, starting from being out of top-10 rankings for six years. Then came her husband and coach, Rainer Hofmann’s involvement in a fraud case, but like a true champion she remained unfazed and battled her way through the obstacles.
“I was out of the WTA top 10 for about six years and it was not easy. The competition is very tough and for a moment if you lose confidence in yourself, other players grab it in no time. I think that’s what happened to me,” said Schnyder.
“But I didn’t give up hope and continued with my hard work and developed my game to re-enter the top 10. It is a great achievement for me,” she asserts.
Schnyder married Hofmann, a German private investigator and information technology specialist, in December 2003. He later became her full-time coach and has also coached India’s tennis ace Sania Mirza.
But soon after his marriage to Schnyder he was convicted for fraudulent business dealings with German national communications firm Deutsche Telekom and later was put on three years probation.
Asked about the incident Schnyder recollects: “We faced a lot of problems, but we were always together. I never gave problems the opportunity to sit upon my head and that’s probably the reason why it didn’t hamper my game.”
Undoubtedly, Schnyder is a true fighter who never gives up. That came to the fore Wednesday at the Bangalore Open, when she came from a set down to prevail over unseeded Akiko Morigami of Japan 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2 to book a quarterfinal berth.
Interestingly, Schnyder’s last tournament victory came in Cincinnati in 2005 and the player she beat in the final was Morigami.
For Schnyder, Bangalore is only a stepping stone to a bigger target, a Grand Slam victory.