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News & Press
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Lera and Maryna take Doubles title at US Open
Valeria Solovieva RUS
Maryna Zanevska UKR 1 6 [10 ]
Elena Bogdan ROU (3)
Noppawan Lertcheewakarn THA (3) 6 3 [7 ]
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Lera advances to Doubles Semi Finals at US Open Doubles
Valeria Solovieva RUS
Maryna Zanevska UKR 4 6 [10 ]
v
Timea Babos HUN (2)
Ajla Tomljanovic CRO (2) 6 1 [4 ]
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Pennetta saves six match points to stop Zvonareva
NEW YORK (Reuters) - World number 10 Flavia Pennetta saved six match points and advanced to her second successive U.S. Open quarter-final with a 3-6 7-6 6-0 victory over Russian seventh seed Vera Zvonareva on Sunday.
The 27-year-old Pennetta, the first Italian woman to crack the top 10, was on the ropes for much of the 81-minute second set before winning the tiebreaker 8-6.
Zvonareva, 24, unraveled in the final set, falling in 33 minutes to lose for the second time to Pennetta in three career meetings.
Pennetta, seeded 10th, will next face number two seed and three-times champion Serena Williams.
"Serena is one of the best players in the world," Pennetta said in a courtside interview. "She's unbelievable. I'll have to play my best tennis to beat her."
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Italian Pennetta storms into last 16
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tenth seed Flavia Pennetta became the first woman into the fourth round of the U.S. Open after she trounced Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1 6-1 on Friday.
The Italian, a quarter-finalist last year, continued her hot streak of form as she reached the last 16 for the loss of just six games.
Wozniak had beaten 17th seed Amelie Mauresmo to reach the third round but was totally outplayed as the Italian raced to victory in just 52 minutes.
Pennetta will now play the winner of the all-Russian clash between seventh seed Vera Zvonareva and Elena Vesnina, the 31st seed.
Friday, September 04, 2009
Pennetta’s ‘Perfect’ Match Takes Only 50 Minutes
 Bagels are not exactly an Italian specialty.But Flavia Pennetta indulged in a New York treat Wednesday when she achieved a rare “double bagel” on Armstrong Stadium Court, blanking Sania Mirza, 6-0, 6-0, in the second round of the United States Open.
As much as the score was a pictorial indication of Mirza’s struggling game, it was even more representative of Pennetta’s soaring one.
After being the victim of the tournament’s first shutout, in a mere 50 minutes, Mirza remarked to Pennetta in the locker room that she had played “perfect” tennis.
Pennetta, a bubbly, personable 27-year-old from Italy, thanked her and later modestly agreed. “I was very focused,” she said. “I didn’t make any mistakes at all.”
It has been that type of summer for Pennetta, who on Aug. 17 became the first woman from Italy to reach the top 10 in the world rankings. The name of her hometown, Brindisi, translates to a toast, which is appropriate considering that the Pugliese city is clinking glasses to her along with the rest of the country.
“In Italy everybody is going crazy,” she said. “But I feel pretty the same, actually.”
She acknowledged, though, that perhaps one thing had changed. “I believe more in myself,” she said.
Two years ago, Pennetta finished the season ranked No. 40. She was struggling from a bitter and public breakup from the tennis player Carlos Moya, and it took about four months to recover from what Sergio Palmieri, the director of the Fed and Davis Cup teams in Italy, called “the injury of the heart.”
By 2008, Palmieri said on Wednesday, “she started to take care of herself more, and take care of her career.”
Pennetta, who does not like to talk about the Moya effect, acknowledged that she refocused her priorities, making tennis No. 1.
“Of course after what happened, I was more piu forte,” she said, meaning she was stronger inside.
Armed with a booming forehand, Pennetta is thrilled with her late surge, especially considering the reality of the sports hierarchy in Italy.
“Soccer is 90 percent, and then there are all the other sports,” she said. So when she made the front pages after ascending to No. 10 in the world, the achievement was especially meaningful.
Women, she said, are gaining more respect in these “minor” sports, especially after Maria Valentina Vezzali’s gold-medal performances in fencing at the 2008 Olympics.
At the Open, the Italian women are ranked higher than the men, with the exception of No. 49 Andreas Seppi. But all the men have left the singles draw.
Adriano Panatta, who soared to No. 4 in 1976, was the highest-ranked Italian. He is best remembered at the Open for his stirring five-set loss to Jimmy Connors in the fourth round in 1978.
Pennetta is the leader today, having won eight tournaments in her career, including two this summer. She won in Palermo, Italy, and the next week she beat Maria Sharapova for the title in Los Angeles.
Francesca Schiavone, ranked No. 28, calls Pennetta a “good example who took the dream.”
What if one day these younger Italian men’s players start moving up in the rankings?
“I know if there is going to be a top-10 man, for the women, it’s going to be over for us,” Pennetta said, half-joking.
Although Italy is her homeland (her parents once owned a gas company in Brindisi called Pennetta Petroli), she does not train in Italy. She and her longtime coach, Gabriel Urpi, who is Spanish, train in Barcelona, Spain, and in Switzerland.
“I left Brindisi when I was 15,” Pennetta said. “I made a normal life until then, went to school in the morning. Now, there are so many young children, they are just kids and they are playing.”
She can afford a bit of reflection from her perch.
“I am old,” she said, “but I am happy with my life.”
Pennetta blanks Sania Mirza in US Open 2nd Round
Sania Mirza's US Open singles campaign wilted in the second round with 10th seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta routing the Indian 6-0, 6-0 in a grossly lop-sided match here today.
The Indian could watch only helplessly as Pennetta blew her away, completing the 50-minute whitewash without any fuss.
Sania made as many as 28 unforced errors in the 12-game match, compared to just six winners, spread equally on both sets.
In the first set, Sania was broken thrice while the Indian squandered the only break point that came her way.
She made 16 unforced error in the 22-minute set, four times more than Pennetta.
In the second set, Sania made 12 unforced errors, twice that of Pennetta. Only twice she had a chance to break the duck but Sania wasted the game points she had on the first and fifth games.
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