US Open - Flavia Pennetta elimina Svetlana Kuznetsova, e approda agli ottavi

Sogno o son desto? Sto rivedendo la Pennetta del 2009/2010, o è un miraggio? Ho visto la partita, e Flavia, al netto di qualche rigore a porta vuota sbagliato per eccesso di confidenza, è stata perfetta. Semplicemente perfetta. Si rafforza in me l'idea che sotto il divorzio fra le due come doppiste possa esserci stato qualche problema, e qualche strascico. Non mi spiego diversamente la semplice stretta di mano a fine partita, essendo abituato a vedere Flavia scambiarsi un bacino con chiunque. Tant'è. Se "divorzio per colpa" c'è stato, non voglio sapere di chi sia la colpa, ma vedendo lo scontro diretto di oggi, so chi delle due ci ha rimesso di più.

Dopodomani c'è la Halep, sempre più ingiocabile. Ma non azzardo pronostici. Con la Flavia vista fin qui li ho sbagliati quasi tutti. Come i bookmakers.

Flavia Pennetta batte Svetlana KUznetsova 7/5  6/1

I commenti di US Open

Pennetta scores win over former champion

PrintBy Clair Maciel -Saturday, August 31, 2013

WHAT HAPPENED: In their 10-year history of head-to-heads, No. 27 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova owned a dominant 5-0 advantage over Italian No. 83 Flavia Pennetta. But all that changed by the close of their third-round US Open match on Saturday. Coming back onto the WTA Tour after missing much of 2012 due to a wrist injury, the former No. 10 Pennetta made a positive step toward rebuilding her ranking with a 7-5, 6-1 win over the 2004 US Open champion.

Both women produced solid play in baseline rallies through most of the first set, until Kuznetsova’s shots started to fail her on serve at 5-5. When three consecutive Kuznetsova shots sent wide, Pennetta had the break and the chance to serve for the set, which she was able to do when another Kuznetsova shot sailed long.

By then, the Russian’s game had fallen apart, and three straight breaks on her serve allowed the Italian to take a 5-0 lead. One trade of breaks later, and Pennetta had finally claimed her first win over Kuznetsova.

The Russian finished the match with 35 unforced errors to Pennetta’s 13.

WHAT IT MEANS: Pennetta’s next challenge for the round of 16 will be a red-hot Simona Halep, the No. 21 seed who steamrolled past No. 14 Maria Kirilenko, 6-1, 6-0. Thus far, the Italian has taken out two seeded players in No. 4 Sara Errani and Kuznetsova.

Kuznetsova, like Pennetta, skipped last year’s US Open due to injury, and is also making her way back on the Tour after an injury-marred 2013 season that forced her out of the grass court season [...]