DUBAI - Sixth-seed Patty Schnyder battled to a 6-7 6-3 6-3 win over Francesca Schiavone today to reach the second round of the Dubai Open tennis championship.
The Swiss left-hander had suffered early losses to Ekaterina Bychkova and Tatiana Golovin in her last two events, and struggled togain the upper hand against Schiavone.
The Italian occasionally played well at the net and rallied bravely from the baseline but was ultimately let down by a serve that produced 12 double-faults.
Schiavone lost an early break as Schnyder levelled at 3-3 in the opening set, and a double-fault gave Schnyder set point at 5-4. But Schiavone held off that threat, and then took the tiebreak on her fourth set point.
Schnyder won the second set by breaking in the first and last games, and then took a 3-1 lead in the third set when Schiavone hit her 11th double-fault.
Although Schiavone recovered that break in the seventh game, a further double-fault and then a forehand error gave Schnyder a further break and left her serving for the match.
"I've had some struggles and it was really important to get through a tough one," said Schnyder. "I had so many chances in the first set and didn't do it. I'm really happy I got through.
"My serve was really good, and I was just staying in the match and fighting for every shot. That's what you have to do when your confidence is not great. You have to hang in there and it will come back."
Chinese seventh seed Na Li lost a marathon battle with Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, holding a match point in the second set before losing 6-7 7-6 6-3 in just over three hours.
Champion Justine Henin of Belgium, the top seed, has never lost in three previous appearances.
Amelie Mauresmo of France, the winner in Antwerp on Sunday and the 2002 Dubai champion, is seeded number two.
Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova is the third seed while Tokyo champion Martina Hingis of Switzerland is seeded four.
