Patty Schnyder

Patty Schnyder

Patty Schnyder played tennis left-handed and thought about it sideways, all drop shots, high loops and disguised pace built to unsettle bigger hitters expecting a flat, honest ball. It carried the Swiss to a career-high of world No. 7 in November 2005 and, at her best, to the semi-finals of the 2004 Australian Open, where Kim Clijsters finally stopped her. She never reached a major final, by her own account the one gap in a full career, but 11 career titles and a decade parked in or near the top 20 said enough about how hard she was to play.

The middle years brought turbulence off the court, a management relationship with her then coach and later husband that cost her sponsors and headlines more than rankings points. She retired in 2011 at 32, only to return in 2015 with her young daughter in tow, grinding back through qualifying draws. In 2018, at 39, she qualified for the US Open main draw, the oldest woman to do so, and lost in round one to Maria Sharapova. She retired for good that November, closing one of the longer, stranger careers the tour has seen.