But images of a bewildered Williams can’t define this tournament.
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“Also, I was thinking it was going to be nice to be on court with her, and maybe lose, but for a moment so special for everyone, for her, for history”, she said.
It is only the seventh time a female player from outside the top 25 has won a major title and Pennetta’s success in her 49th grand slam is the longest a woman has ever had to wait to achieve the feat. I’m not confident enough in my tennis history to due justice in an argument between her and Graf or Court or Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova.
The victor was ranked just 26 in the world this year but went one better than her previous best in 2013, when she had lost in the semis to Victoria Azarenka. Suddenly she was the favorite in her first Grand Slam final.
“Sometimes it’s getting hard for me to compete”, she explained. So this is the ideal moment, I think. I had an upset stomach. This year we treated her as if she were American Pharoah.
– Novak Djokovic after his spectacular stomping which destroyed his racquet in his four-set win over Roberto Bautista Agut. They won an Olympic gold medal in doubles. “The decision was already there”, she said. “Women are more determined… men are more mentally fragile”, she ventured.
ROME (AP) – Italian Premier Matteo Renzi was flying to New York to attend the first all-Italian U.S. Open final. Then his fiancee went out and earned an even bigger victory for Italy.
That, after the final, the two Italian players embraced the way they did, sat next to each other and giggled like teenagers as they awaited for the presentation ceremony, and joked with each other while receiving their trophies – at one point Vinci snatched the winner’s cheque of $3.3 million dollars from Pennetta’s hand – was a great example of how friendship can be strong and free of bitterness in spite of there being a victor and a loser.
“The victories of Pennetta and Vinci, and the triumph of Flavia in the final, are not only [about] tennis“, he enthused.
Italy had never won a Fed Cup championship before 2006.
Flavia Pennetta wins her first major title in the US Open against her childhood friend Roberta Vinci, who gave everyone a shock by beating Serena Williams the day before.
“He was talking with me and Roberta because we were together”.
“When you start to think too much, it’s time to take a decision – stop, or keep going”.
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“We love you”, said the front-page headline of the Gazzetta dello Sport, with a “NY” inside a heart that replaced the letter “O” in “love“.
