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Schnyder ends Williams' hopes

Patty Schnyder celebrates after winning her match against Serena Williams at the Italian Open tennis tournament at Rome's Foro Italico on Friday. PHOTO: EPA

Serena Williams was upbeat about her French Open chances despite her quarter-final defeat to Patty Schnyder in the Italian Open on Friday.

Swiss 14th seed Schnyder, a runner-up in Rome two years ago, beat the US eight-time Grand Slam winner 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/5) to set up a semi-final meeting with Serbian Jelena Jankovic.

Williams, who has been plagued by a groin injury this year and was playing in only her second claycourt tournament of the year, said she still felt there were enough positives to take from her performances at the Foro Italico.

Asked how confident she was about Roland Garros, the 2002 French Open champion replied: "Really confident. I feel like I'm getting there fitness-wise and that I can hit a lot of balls."

"I feel like I'll really enjoy myself there, and obviously I have nothing to lose," she said. "I'm going to do well, and I think once I start believing that it will happen."

After 28-year-old Swiss player had comfortably taken the first set and gone 2-0 up in the second, she lost her concentration, allowing Williams to take the next seven games.

Williams, who won the Australian Open in Melbourne earlier this year as an unseeded player, appeared to be the favorite going into the decider, but Schnyder regained her composure to edge the tie-break.

Williams, 25, said she felt that she was going to win the match after taking the second set.

"I was playing a little better and she was playing a little worse at that point," said the eighth seed, currently ranked 11th in the world. "Naturally I thought I was going to go on and win the match, but I was very inconsistent."

Schnyder, who had lost six of her previous seven encounters with the former world number one, admitted Williams was difficult to shake off.

"She's such a champion and she pushed me all the way," she said. "But I always believed I could win. My confidence has been high this week and I have been playing well."

Jankovic, seeded three and winner of two WTA singles titles this year, defeated Russian 10th seed Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-1.

Jankovic insisted her match with Dementieva, runner-up at the French and US Open in 2004, was much harder than the score suggested.

"There were some really tough games and the final result didn't really reflect how difficult it was at times," said the 22-year-old.

In the other semi-final, Russian second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was due to face Slovakian ninth seed Daniela Hantuchova.

Kuznetsova eased to a 6-1, 6-3 victory over fellow Russian Dinara Safina while Hantuchova was made to work hard for her 7-6 (10/8), 7-5 win over unseeded Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues.
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