The story appears on

Page A16

September 4, 2013

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Sports » Tennis

Friends will become foes in all-Italian quarterfinal

Roberta Vinci will face a fellow Italian in the US Open quarterfinals for the second straight year.

And the 10th-seeded Vinci will also be taking on an Italian for the third straight round at this year’s tournament after she and longtime friend Flavia Pennetta both won on Monday in New York.

“We try to motivate everyone,” Pennetta said. “It’s really nice because always we make a good result, almost always.”

On a day when experience trumped youth, three 30-something women beat opponents in their early 20s. Vinci defeated Camila Giorgi 6-4, 6-2 in 67 minutes. Moments later, rain started pouring down, stopping all matches at Flushing Meadows for 4½ hours.

The delay couldn’t have come at a better time for Pennetta, who returned to the court to seize momentum and clinch a 6-2, 7-6 (3) victory over 21st-seeded Simona Halep.

American wild-card entry Alison Riske forced a third set against Daniela Hantuchova, but the Slovakian veteran pulled away for a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 victory.

Hantuchova said she’s “just fighting like crazy, really leaving everything I’ve got on the court.”

She will face the winner of a delayed match between Azarenka and 13th-seeded Ana Ivanovic, which was postponed because of the rain.

Halep had set point on her serve, trying to send the match to the third, when the skies opened up to her dismay. Once they resumed play, Pennetta pounced on a second serve to set up a big forehand that erased the set point.

“After that I was very nervous and I lost the game — very fast,” Halep said.

Pennetta is in the US Open quarters for the fourth time. But this one is sweet, because she missed last year’s tournament with a right wrist injury that explains why her ranking has slipped to 83rd.

 




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend