Patty Schnyder grabs the title at her favorite tournament

September 14, 2008

Patty Schnyder is a familiar face for loyal WTA Bali fans and she managed to maintain her fine form from US Open in securing her 11th title after the last one in 2005 Cincinnati. After three times appearance in the island of Gods, she is truly the champion now of her favorite tournament in the calendar of Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. She could not ask for anything better than crushed her 12 years younger opponent, Tamira Paszek 6-3, 6-0. She has reason to be proud after winning today's final, she notched her 500 wins of her career!

The second seeded left-hander Swiss had to be competitive in earning points which made her to lead 2-0. Paszek kept on fighting and leveled-up 2 games all. Fans were delighted to witness both players demonstrated unexpected shots. From then on, Schnyder had another break to lead 4-2 and Austrian teenager began to lose her tenacity influenced by tireness of playing three sets two days in a row. In the 2nd set, Basel resident who has been on the tour since August 1994 simply took control of the match and won 6-0. It took just 67 minutes for Schnyder to clinch her Bali victory and to climb back as world number 11 by the time the latest WTA ranking list is released tomorrow. Today's scoreline was slightly better than 1st round match in Dubai earlier this year when Schnyder cruised past Paszek 6-4, 6-0. As the winner, Schnyder pocketed US $ 35,000, while Paszek added her current season earnings with US $ 19,000.

Being runner-up here, Paszek got her best result of the season. Her ranking will rise from WTA 85 to WTA 63 tomorrow. Both Schnyder and Paszek will catch the flight to Guangzhou, China tomorrow to be on time for participating in another Tier 3 tourney with total prize money of US $ 175,000.

Prior to the one-sided singles' final, the fans were entertained with great doubles' final from beginning to end. The 3rd seeded pair of Taiwanese Hsieh Su-Wei and Chinese Peng Shuai won the title for the 1st time together after beating Marta Domachowska/Nadia Petrova (Poland/Russia) 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 10-7 in two hours and two minutes. Tomorrow, Peng and Domachowska will continue their trip to Guangzhou same as Schnyder and Paszek. While Petrova will play Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan. As per yesterday, Hsieh withdrew from qualifying round of Toray Pan Pacific.

Photo is Adji Soedibjo's collection