Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder, 32, today announced her decision to retire from professional tennis and end her 17-year career. Her last singles match was a first-round defeat at the current French Open to Romanian Sorana Cirstea, while in doubles she and her partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld lost in the second round to top seeds Flavia Pennetta and Gisela Dulko.

The 2011 French Open was Schnyder’s 59th career Grand Slam appearance, and her best Grand Slam performance was a semifinal at the 2004 Australian Open. Schnyder’s career was successful in both singles and doubles. The Swiss won 11 WTA singles titles (in the 27 finals she played) and 5 doubles titles. Her highest career ranking in singles was No.7 (she was ranked in the Top 10 for 94 weeks), and in doubles it was No.15. Now at the moment of her retirement, Schyder’s singles ranking is No.55 and doubles No.124.

A good number of wins over world No.1 players enrich Schnyders biography: Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Steffi Graf, Jennifer Capriati, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Amélie Mauresmo, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki. (photo courtesy of Women Who Serve)

Women’s Tennis Blog, or better said me as a blogger behind it, has received a special recognition by BlogHer, the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online which is reaching more than 20 million women monthly. BlogHer has numerous categories such as career, DIY, life, food, health, tech, style, family, book club, and others, and on the homepage of their new category of sports I got an honorary position of a featured blogger. Nice.

Favorites for the Roland Garros title keep falling like crazy, very early into the tournament already, and the latest to be sent home is world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki who was humbled by Daniela Hantuchova 6-1 6-3 in the third round.

In the first set, Wozniacki earned no break points and scored no winners (Hantuchova hit 15) and Hantuchova took the set in 27 minutes. In the second set Hantuchova raced to a 4-0 lead, and even though Wozniacki produced some sort of comeback it was the Slovakian who didn't allow her opportunity to be wasted and broke Wozniacki in the final game to advance to the fourth-round meeting with the 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. Read more »

Both last year’s finalists were in action today. Defending champion Francesca Schiavone had an easy progress into the fourth round, as her opponent Peng Shuai retired with breathing problems at 6-3 1-2 (Schiavone won the first set). However, last year’s runner-up Samantha Stosur bowed out to unseeded Gisela Dulko – this match-up suggested a possible upset, especially because their both previous encounters were close, and the 51st-ranked Dulko recorded a 6-4 1-6 6-3 victory this time. Read more »

Thanks to Forty Deuce I learned about an excellent article from the New York Times about Maria Sharapova's brand and how she's been building it carefully from the beginning of her career. Somewhere in the middle of the article, they hint that the 24-year-old Sharapova plans to announce a new partnership ahead of the US Open. The partnership will work towards developing Sharapova’s own brand of candy and sweets resembling tennis balls, packaged in containers shaped like tennis-ball cans. The new brand will be called Sugarpova.

I have to mention one quote of a 13-year-old Sharapova which the New York Times article singles out. When little Sharapova was asked whether she would rather win Wimbledon or make $20 million in endorsements, she said without hesitation: "I would choose to win Wimbledon, because then the millions will come." That’s why we love her, she’s smart and has guts!

Sharapova already has lucrative contracts with Nike (estimated to be worth $70 million), Cole Haan, Tiffany, Tag Heuer and Sony Ericsson. According to Forbes, the Russian made $24.5 million from June 2009 to June 2010.

At the ongoing Roland Garros, Sharapova is one of the favorites for the big trophy, because of her recent Rome title, her status of a champion and her ever-present fighting spirit. In her today's second-round match, the seventh-seeded Russian, who doesn't accept the end until it's really there, won 11 straight games from being 6-3 4-1 down to beat world No.188 Caroline Garcia of France 3-6 6-4 6-0. The Nike design she's sporting at the claycourt Grand Slam is a yellow Eiffel Tower-inspired dress. (photo: sr_cranks)