Pennetta’s shock win ‘simply perfect’
NEW YORK: For Flavia Pennetta, summing up her tumultuous, shocking, fascinating and heart-warming US Open triumph was easily described in a single word. “Perfect.”
Pennetta, the oldest maiden grand slam finalist in the Open era, became the first Italian to win the US Open women’s crown and did so on Saturday with an efficient 7-6(4) 6-2 victory over childhood friend and compatriot Roberta Vinci.
Before accepting the trophy and $3.3million for the win that marked the greatest triumph of her career, the 33-year-old announced her retirement.
“My life is perfect,” Pennetta said when asked how she would look back at the championship. “Perfect.
“This one was my last US Open match and I couldn’t think to finish in a better way.”
Two weeks ago, no one could have predicted a final between the 26th-ranked Pennetta, then rated a 150-1 outsider, and the 43rd-ranked Vinci, an even more unfancied 300-1.
However,
both
players fought their way through to the most unlikely title showdown that put Italy firmly in the spotlight of New York’s gaze.
Pennetta, who is engaged to fellow Italian tennis player Fabio Fognini, said she would play to the end of this season, including tournaments in Wuhan, Beijing and possibly the elite eight-woman WTA Finals in Singapore.
Having battled injuries in recent years, Pennetta said she made the decision to call time on her career at last month’s Toronto event.
“Sometimes it’s getting hard for me to compete,” she said. “When you are in the court, when you have to play 24 weeks in the year, you have to fight every week.
“And if you don’t fight every week in the same way I did today, it’s gonna be bad. So this is the perfect moment, I think. Was a really hard decision to make but I’m really happy that I did it.”
Pennetta, who had previously climbed as high as 10th in the rankings in 2009 but will shoot up to eighth after this success, always seemed to save her best grand slam performances for the US Open.
Prior to this week, she was a semi-finalist in New York in 2013 and reached the Flushing Meadows quarter-finals on four other occasions.
There to congratulate both Italians was Italy’s prime minister Matteo Renzi. He said: “It’s good that you are here because it’s going to be crazy back in Italy now.”
Making the occasion extra special was sharing the stage with Vinci, who had miraculously overcome top-seeded World No 1 Serena Williams with a stunning semi-final victory that crushed the American’s dream of completing a calendar Grand Slam.
“It’s so magical, you have one of your best friends with you in this moment,” said Pennetta. “We spent four years in a house together in the same room in Rome at the Italian Federation,” she said. “We have so many things in our life happening together. So today was a really big day for both of us.”
And how was she as a roommate? “She’s perfect,” beamed Pennetta. – Reuters