ZURICH // The Swiss sixth seed Patty Schnyder suffered a first round defeat in front of her home fans at the Zurich Open on Tuesday, losing 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to the Czech qualifier Petra Kvitova. Schnyder, 29, had been hoping to win her second Zurich title following her 2002 tournament triumph, but threw away a 3-0 lead in the third set to let her teenage opponent take control. "Of course, I am disappointed but I can't make any excuses," she said following her defeat to the world No 57. "It was a strange match with an unhappy ending. She recovered [from trailing 3-0] and hit a lot of winners. I couldn't find a way to make it difficult for her after that."
The Russian seventh seed Anna Chakvetadze was another casualty, going down 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to Monica Niculescu. With the tournament's top four seeds receiving byes, the Polish world No 10 Agnieszka Radwanska was the highest seed in action and eased past the Russian qualifier Vera Dushevina 6-4, 6-1. * Reuters
