The rebirth of Patty Schnyder

SCHNYDER SHOWS SIGNS OF FORMER SELF
Back in 1998, Patty Schnyder won her first five career titles and the buzz was that the women's tour could possibly end up being ruled by two Swiss women – Hingis and Schnyder. When the 1999 season started in January, Schnyder was ranked No. 8 and she was expected to keep a steady spot in the Top 10.

Nevertheless, all too soon it was revealed that Schnyder had an insidious force around her, a force that would put her career in a tailspin.

Schnyder had met German Ranier Harnecker, a self-proclaimed "faith healer" on a trip to Mallorca. Harnecker, who started to travel with Schnyder as coach/boyfriend, had little or no knowledge of tennis and had encouraged the Swiss player to sever relations with her family. Tour officials were extremely concerned about her welfare and much of the advice that Harnecker was imparting, such as drinking several quarts of orange juice a day since it's "almost identical to mother's milk," were considered unhealthy. By May, Schnyder finally walked away from Harnecker, who was under investigation by German authorities for practicing medicine without a license, but the damage had been done in terms of her tennis.

While Schnyder has won two titles since that time – 1991 Gold Coast and 2001 Pattaya – she certainly hasn't gotten the mileage out of her crafty southpaw game until Charleston last week, when she began toppling top players.

"I just kept believing I could do it and now this is the week I could do it," Schnyder said. "I'm so happy and I just love playing tennis and enjoy my life."

PATTY BELIEVE HER GAME'S BETTER
Schnyder believes her game has improved since her run in 1998 and doesn't believe she would have been able to take out power players such as Mauresmo, Williams or Capriati back in the 1990's.

"I never could have won against those hard hitters and the great players (back then)," Schnyder said. "I cannot compete with them by hitting the ball as hard as they can because they are much bigger, they are much more athletic and taller than I am, and so I just tried to play my game and angle the balls to the backhand and forehand, angle my backhand early, make them run to the forehand side and it's worked out so well."

Where Schnyder lost it on Sunday was in her ability to keep up the pressure. She was quick to declare herself all but the winner on Saturday after beating Capriati, saying, "I'm going to take it," reminding all that she had a perfect winning record against Majoli.

But Sunday was a different match because although she thought the 4-0-record over Majoli gave her a jump-start to victory, she forgot that in this match she was playing an equal, which turned out to be a more mental challenge. When she was playing the seeds, she was playing up and could play loose since she had nothing to lose. This will be an area that Schnyder will have to watch out for as she moves back up the ranking charts – her finalist showing put her into 17th place on the WTA computer this week.

Despite the loss, Schnyder was still reveling in her success at the Family Circle Cup. "I thought I could win the whole thing, but I live so many great moments during the week," Schnyder said. "It's been the best week of my life."

SURPRISED BY SERENA'S ENCOURAGEMENT
In a candid comment, Schnyder admitted she did not expect the reaction she received from Williams after beating the American 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.

"I was surprised by Serena yesterday, what she told me at the net," Schnyder said. "I mean she was really nice and I was surprised. She was really looking into my eyes and saying, 'Yeah, you played a great match and I hope you're going to make it through to win the tournament.' That was really nice because she was not looking at me in the beginning (of the match). She was kind of arrogant. So I was really impresses with that sentence at the end."

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