Swiss sixth seed Patty Schnyder [ Images ] 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 Czech qualifier Petra Kvitova [ Images ].

Schnyder 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'm disappointed but I can't make any excuses," the 29-year-old said following her defeat by the world number 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."

Russian seventh seed Anna Chakvetadze [ Images ] was another casualty on Tuesday, going down 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to Romanian world number 66 Monica Niculescu.

With the tournament's top four seeds all receiving byes into the second round, Polish world number 10 Agnieszka Radwanska [ Images ] was the highest seed in action and eased past Russian qualifier Vera Dushevina 6-4 6-1.