Venus sinks Italian to take Swiss title

Written by Writer on Monday, October 20th, 2008

Venus sinks Italian to take Swiss title

ZURICH

Monday, October 20, 2008
Brunei Times

VENUS WILLIAMS claimed her second title of the year yesterday when she defeated unseeded Italian Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 in the final of the Zurich Open.

The third-seeded American, who was playing the 60th final of her career, won her 38th title, adding to the Wimbledon crown she earned in July.

Pennetta, who is expected to rise to a new career-high ranking of 14 today, was seeking her fourth consecutive win over Williams, after beating her in Bangkok in 2007 and at Roland Garros and Moscow this year.

The quality of play was worthy of a final, with the players evenly matched in the first set before Pennetta showed signs of weariness in the second.

The Italian, who was involved in a three-set doubles semi-final as well as a hard-fought singles match on Saturday, looked the stronger player in the opening set.

She rallied aggressively from the baseline and drew some superb defensive play from Williams, although she twice failed to make the killer shot at the end of a rally.

Neither player faced a break point in the entire first set, although Williams was taken to deuce five times. But having held serve more easily, only going to deuce once, Pennetta was totally overwhelmed in the tiebreak, dropping the first six points.

In the second set, the American broke early and consolidated that by taking the set 6-2.AFP