Patty Schnyder has always played amongst the Greats of the Game, and is now talking down retirement speculation.

When Patty Schnyder began her professional career in 1993, Steffi Graf was reigning over women's tennis. She has seen many greats come and go and the women's tour has changed beyond recognition.

"It's very special for me. I was lucky to be among the big move of women's tennis, just to get so popular, with all the stars I have played," Schnyder, 32, said after her 3-6, 4-6 third-round loss to Samantha Stosur yesterday.

"Actually I have beaten almost all of them. So it makes me proud to be such a long-time part of the top players, the top athletes of the world."

Schnyder has never reached higher than No 7 in the world (in 2005), but she has been among the most consistent players on the tour with 11 WTA titles.

She also has victories over almost every world No 1 - her victims include Graf, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Justine Henin, Amelie Mauresmo, Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki.

But while the Swiss is proud of the career she has had, she is not happy with the way the women's game has changed over the past few years.

"The balls are getting so heavy and the courts are so slow," Schnyder said. "That's just the main factor that's bad for my game especially. It's taking a lot of energy out of the women's side.

"It's just a development coming from the men's [game], because they have only serving. They are trying to adjust the balls and courts for men's standard.

"I think it's not very good for women's tennis. Things like variation and the different type of players is suffering a lot on the women's side at the moment.

"Everyone is playing the same now. If you see the rallies, it's not as interesting as it was five or eight years ago."

Schnyder, however, is still hanging in there and has not decided a date for her departure from the tour. She will be travelling to Acapulco in Mexico for her next tournament and will be playing in three tournaments in the United States - in Indian Wells, Key Biscayne and Charleston - over the next two months.

"I just want to take a couple of months together and then decide what I am doing," she said. "I am going to decide, not like in months, but when I have a stretch of some tournaments in a row. I'll take it and then I will go on from there.

"For me it's not a big deal. It [retirement] is not the first thing I think of when I go on the court, or it overcomes me during a match when I am losing. I am not that kind of a sentimental person. I just do what I want to do and enjoy myself.

"I know whatever I decide, it's the right thing I am going to decide. That's not a problem."