Blast from the past: Schnyder to make WTA comeback

Former world No.7 Patty Schnyder will make a comeback to the WTA tour when she takes a wildcard into qualifying at next week’s claycourt event in Charleston.

Schnyder, a finalist in Charleston in 2002 and 2006, has not played a tour-level event since falling in the opening round of Roland Garros in 2011.

However, the 37-year-old Swiss returned to competitive tennis in 2015, playing solely on the ITF Pro Circuit; she won a $10,000 tournament in Prague and reached the final of a $25,000 event in Bangkok.

This year she has played three ITF events and has improved her ranking to No.455.

She will enter qualifying along with several other well-known names including Laura Robson, Casey Dellacqua and Naomi Osaka.

In other comeback news, former world No.19 Alona Bondarenko recently announced that she planned to return to the women’s tour.

Bondarenko, who won the Australian Open doubles title with her sister Kateryna in 2008, saw her career prematurely ended due to a right knee injury and has not played since 2011.