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Tournament top seed Patty
Schnyder yesterday breezed through her first match against
Italian Francesa Schiavone at the Hardcourts at Royal
Pines to progress to the quarter finals.
Schnyder convincingly defeated Schiavone in straight sets
6-3, 6-4 to set up a quarter-final showdown with the
winner of today's second round game between sixth seed
American Meghann Shaughnessy and Russian qualifier Lina
Krasnoroutskaya.
The Swiss world No. 15 Schnyder only broke the Italian's
serve on three occasions but the momentum of the match
always held in the petit left-hander's favour with
controlled length and variety frustrating her opponent
into simple mistakes.
But it took eight deuces in the final game before Schnyder
could close out the match on her serve.
She survived six break points and missed two match points,
one an open court volley, before finally securing the
victory.
Despite the straight-sets scoreline the 1999 Gold Coast
champion found the match hard.
"The first round is always hard to play a perfect match,"
said Schnyder. "It was difficult in the second set because
I could not make the second break.
Schnyder's run to the final has opened up considerably
after third seed Ai Sugiyama and seventh seed Iva Majoli
were defeated in Monday's play.
Shaughnessy is the only seed and top 40 player left in
Schnyder's path to another Gold Coast final.
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Photos
Gold Coast 2003 gallery
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