Aug 11 2009
Flavia Pennetta wins LA Women’s Tennis title
Flavia Pennetta took advantage of error-prone Samantha Stosur for a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the LA Women’s Tennis Championships on Sunday, giving the Italian her second title of the year.
Pennetta followed up a three-set semifinal victory over Maria Sharapova by making quick work of Stosur, an Aussie doubles specialist who has yet to win a WTA Tour singles title. She is 0-5 in career finals.
Stosur’s serve let her down with eight double faults. She was broken four times, including three in the second set when she connected on just 52 percent of her first serves.
Stosur also struggled with her forehand, which led to many of her 32 unforced errors. Pennetta made just 16 unforced errors and kept the Aussie on the run throughout.
“My serve was very good,” the Italian said. “I was very aggressive and I went to the net a few times and every time I went there, I won the point. That was a big step to improve my game.”
Pennetta reached the final in Carson last year, losing to Dinara Safina, the world’s top-ranked player who lost in the third round here. Pennetta defeated seventh-ranked Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinals, her third victory this year over a top-10 player. [Read More]