Italian PM Renzi flies to New York for all-Italian US Open final

This is Djokovic’s second U.S. Open title and 10th career Grand Slam singles title, moving him into a tie with Bill Tilden for seventh place on the career list. Then she goes out and loses to Italy’s Roberta Vinci, the 43rd-ranked player in the world, whose previous biggest accomplishment on the Big Court was reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament.

She calls herself “Fighter Girl”, but No. 2 seed Simona Halep looked every bit like a 23-year-old caught in unfamiliar New York traffic – in this case, her first US Open semifinal – as a charismatic 33-year-old Italian seized the day Friday.

“The victories of Pennetta and Vinci, and the triumph of Flavia in the final, are not only [about] tennis“, he enthused.

When Williams went up 2-0 in the first and final set, everyone in Arthur Ashe stadium and the millions watching around the world assumed that Serena would endure and succeed onto the U.S. Open finals this weekend. He also finished a Grand Slam season without a major title for the first time since 2004.

Italian players had never won a Fed Cup championship before 2006.

“With this winning today, my life is flawless”, Pennetta said.

Pennetta, who is one of the most popular figures on the women’s tour, revealed afterwards that she had been contemplating retirement for a while.

“I feel just as I did two weeks ago”. On her first match point, Pennetta, sporting a colour blocking outfit, cracked what was perhaps the shot of the match for sheer positioning and placement, a forehand victor that kissed the chalk.

But after witnessing the stunning runs of Italian duo Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci at the US Open, even the strongest of critics must realise how inspiring tennis is at the moment.

“Sometimes we are more scared to take the decision because we don’t know what we’re going to do after but I think it’s going to be a pretty good life”, Pennetta said. “I didn’t think [I’d] be so far into the tournament”.

“All I’ll say is that when Italians are complaining about efficiency & punctuality there’s some cause for concern…”

“I passed 24 hours with a lot of things on mind”, Vinci said.

“It was hard mentally for both of us”, she said.

The sight of a teenager freaking out on a tennis court after winning a grand slam has been a familiar one and it has undoubtedly led thousands of youngsters to pick up a tennis racquet and dare to dream.