Serena Williams of the us listens to a reporter’s question during a post-match press conference following her loss to Roberta Vinci of Italy in their women’s singles semi-final match at the U.S. Open Championships tennis tournament in New York yesterday. “But, yeah, I think she played literally out of her mind”. “I think a lot of pressure“, smiled Vinci. Vinci took Williams down in three sets, but is still plenty fresh, having played one less match than Pennetta thanks to an injury to Eugenie Bouchard earlier in the tournament.
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Pennetta’s surprise win over second seed Halep meant Williams needed only to beat two veteran Italians to hold all four major titles in a single year.
Serena Williams’ conqueror Roberta Vinci has had to postpone a flight home in order to play in her first grand slam final at the US Open. I’m in the final.
Those rates began to drop by the third set of the Williams-Vinci match, Leyden said, as buyers and brokers began to sense that a historic upset could be in the making that would spike the top-ranked player out of the final.
That ended Williams’ 33-match winning streak at majors, including 26 in a row this season, two shy of completing the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988.
Flavia Pennetta has reached her first Grand Slam final.
“For the American people, for Serena, for the Grand Slam, today’s my day”.
Ranked 111th in the world, Virginie Razzano inflicted what remains Williams’ only first-round defeat at a grand slam. That all changed against the nine-time Grand Slam champion.
Ticket holders could sense trouble was brewing for Williams, who already won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.
Vinci was overjoyed by her shock win. “She’s supposed to win this tournament”, Pennetta said.
“It’s fantastic. It’s like a dream”, Vinci said.
Vinci played brilliant tennis, “focusing on the ball, not her opponent”, she said afterwards.
Vinci reached triple break point again in the fifth game and Williams, after her ninth and 10th aces of the match, fired a backhand wide to surrender the break and a 3-2 lead.
“I was exhausted especially the first set”, Vinci said.
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Then Friday, the 32-year-old Italian used her considerable guile to upset the No. 1 player in the world in a result that no one could have foretold, just as it couldn’t be predicted that she would be facing Flavia Pennetta, her 33-year-old countrywoman, in Saturday’s final. I’m going to lean towards Pennetta who could move into the top ten with the win.
