Roberta Vinci stole the headlines on Friday with her monumental semifinal upset of No. 1 seed and three-time defending champion Serena Williams, but it was just hours earlier that No. 23 seed Flavia Pennetta pulled off one of the biggest surprises of the tournament, knocking off No. 2 seed Simona Halep in their semifinal.
And it wasn’t just a victory. It was a drubbing. Pennetta played her best match of the tournament, hitting 23 winners to 16 unforced errors in beating Halep, 6-1, 6-3. After 15 years on tour, the always-popular Italian rose to the occasion and reached her first Grand Slam singles final.
“Twenty days ago, my physio asked if I can win a Grand Slam or be in the final of a Grand Slam and I said no,” said Pennetta. “The good things comes when you never expect it most of the time. When you want something too much and say this is the moment I have to do this and that, it’s always going to be a big mess.”
Her run over the last two weeks is even more surprising because there was nothing in her form to indicate that it was coming. Although her 2015 season includes a win over world No. 3 Maria Sharapova, she had lost in the first round at seven tournaments and hadn’t reached a semifinal all season. Since the French Open, Pennetta had posted a 2-5 record.
Pennetta even admitted that she has considered retiring from the pro tour in recent years, but said that love of the game is what has kept her playing.
“I don't see myself without tennis. It's something I did since I was young, so I don't know what else I can do. I don't know what I like,” she admitted. “I have to discover everything. It's like a new life completely. So sometimes it’s the more scary thing, no? Because the life is going to change.”
What hasn’t changed is her approach to the game. Pennetta has earned a reputation for being one of the hardest-working players on tour, and she has admitted that there are times when she prefers training to competing. Even though her lead-up into the US Open was less than ideal, she simply buckled down and worked to fix the kinks in her game.
Slowly but surely, she has just done that over the last two weeks. Her three-set win in the opening round over Jarmila Gajdosova was, by her own admission, not pretty. But her form improved with each match, and by the time she arrived to Arthur Ashe Stadium for her fourth-round match against former US Open champion Samantha Stosur, she was in full flight.
Now she’s the on-paper favorite to win in her first Grand Slam final when she plays countrywoman Vinci. Pennetta leads their head-to-head, 5-4, and has won their last two meetings, including a dominant victory in the quarterfinals of the 2013 US Open. Regardless of what happens, Pennetta said she is hoping to enjoy the moment and continue to play without expectations.
“It’s going to be nice to be on court. You have a chance to do something amazing,” she said. “When you are a child, you are thinking, ‘What do you want to do?’ I want to win a Grand Slam. It’s something so special to be here now.”
