Pennetta Rolls Over Halep to Reach First Ever Major Final
Italian Flavia Pennetta played a nearly flawless match Friday morning in Flushing Meadows, dismissing world number two Simona Halep 6-1, 6-3 to reach the U.S. Open finals, the first Major final of her career.
“I think I played really well,” Pennetta said in her on-court post-match interview.
That is an understatement.
Pennetta broke for a 3-1 lead in the opening set, and after consolidating it with a hold, broke Halep one more time to cruise 6-1 in the first set.
She carried that momentum into the second, breaking Halep in her opening service game.
But the tough Romanian didn’t go away there. She won three straight games, breaking twice, to build a 3-1 advantage.
That was all she could conjure up, however, as Pennetta was just too strong. The 26th seed broke back to bring it to 2-3 and you could sense the momentum had shifted back to her side.
She won five straight games from that 1-3 deficit, breaking three times, and won 19 of the final 21 points to upset Halep and become the first Italian to play for the U.S. Open title.
The 33-year-old hit 23 winners to just 16 unforced errors, and broke six times in her 10 opportunities. She took advantage of a struggling serve from Halep, who won just 42 percent of her first serve points.
“Of course, I’m really happy. I think I played really well from the beginning,” said Pennetta. “In the second set, I just waited a little bit to much in the beginning, waiting for her mistak and I didn’t push a lot like before. But overall really happy, because I was 3-1 down and I just started again with what I had to do. Everything was working amazing today, so really pleased.”
Pennetta will take on the winner of the match Friday afternoon between world number one Serena Williams and Roberta Vinci in the final.
