Italy beat US to win Fed Cup title

Reuters - Sun, 08 Nov 11:46:00 2009

Italy surged to their second Fed Cup title by destroying the United States 4-0 in the final.

Italy's team players hold the trophy after beating the U.S. in their Fed Cup final tennis matches in Reggio Calabria, REUTERS - 0

Flavia Pennetta charged past Melanie Oudin 7-5 6-2 in the third singles rubber to give an unassailable 3-0 lead to the hosts, who were helped by Serena and Venus Williams again opting not to compete for the US.

Italy, who first won the trophy in 2006 and overcame defending champions Russia in this year's semi-finals, had never beaten the Americans in nine previous Fed Cup ties.

"It's incredible, the girls have rewritten the history of Italian tennis," captain Corrado Barazzutti said at the courtside before being showered with champagne.

Pennetta, the world number 11, put Italy 1-0 up on Saturday when she comfortably beat Alexa Glatch before a confident Francesca Schiavone also defeated Oudin.

The Americans, who have racked up a record 17 Fed Cup titles but have not lifted the trophy since 2000, continually struggled and failed to win a set in the singles.

Oudin, 18, gave Pennetta a great early boost by netting a simple shot and surrendering her serve in the first game.

Pennetta consistently dominated but suffered a wobble when Oudin broke back at 5-5 on the outdoor clay court.

The American then double faulted to lose serve in the next game and hand back the advantage to the Italian, who quickly sealed the set under overcast skies.

A partisan crowd in southern Italy and some slow ball girls increasingly irritated Oudin, the top-ranked US player at 49.

She fell apart in the second set and was broken three times, allowing Pennetta the luxury of dropping her own service once before securing victory to the delight of nearly 4,000 fans.

"I feel like I let my team down and the whole US too," Oudin said.

The fourth singles match between Schiavone and Glatch was scrapped with Italy already having triumphed, leaving Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci to entertain the fans with victory over Vania King and Liezel Huber in the doubles.

They won 4-6 6-3 and 11-9 in a super tiebreak instead of a third set.

Italy, now the top-ranked Fed Cup team for the first time while their men continue to flounder in the Davis Cup, will start the defence of the title against Ukraine in February.

"We are champions of the world. It's simple," said Pennetta.

Reuters

Comment 1 - 11 of 11

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  1. who gives a F**k that the 2 bulldykes wernt there?

    From Deep Sea Diver, on Mon 9 Nov 11:20AM

  2. who gives a F**k that the 2 bulldykes wernt there?

    From Deep Sea Diver, on Mon 9 Nov 11:20AM

  3. As I've suggested in free-online verse (yahoo me),­ females should play TABLE tennis, which puts far less­ stress on the racket arm.

    From David Franks: Walkabouts Verse, on Mon 9 Nov 9:47AM

  4. Well DOne Italy! ! ! A well deserve win.

    From Bblee, on Sun 8 Nov 11:21PM

  5. Venus has beAten penetta on clay last march on Acapulco­ Final.
    i don`t buy ue lies u italians.if one of the­ sisters were there. u`ll have had a hard day

    From abdurrazeg a, on Sun 8 Nov 10:21PM

  6. Pennetta would probably have beaten both sisters on the­ clay - she's extremely comfortable on it and really­ has Venus' number in the head to heads count. Well­ done Italy you deserve this title!

    From mohawk393939, on Sun 8 Nov 8:59PM

  7. if venis and serena would have played hmm the result ­ would have been different but am happy they didnt pay­ can u remember that semi final match between venus and­ kim in America ? so many Americans were supporting kim­ and then I was like oohps ,good result

    From lacson.lacson, on Sun 8 Nov 7:00PM

  8. the absent is alwasy wrong. Flavia beat Venus several­ times and on clay???? i think the williams wanted to­ avoid a possible upset...and frankly...its about­ money..Venus said that more then once! so...Italy­ deserves it.

    From Fabrizio M, on Sun 8 Nov 6:22PM

  9. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ITALYYYY:)))))))))

    From Ana, on Sun 8 Nov 2:46PM

  10. and the message to the WTA is quite simple - sort­ yourselves out, stop trying to copy the Davis Cup and­ revert the Fed Cup back to the one week 32 nation knock­ out competition because quite frankly, the way you have­ it at the moment , makes a joke of the entire­ competition and the " let's copy the men and­ span it out over the whole year " attitude , has­ been an unmitigated disaster resulting in today's­ result - the world's top 2 players missing and­ replaced by a couple of teenagers who haven't even­ hit the top 50 yet and probably never will.

    From miguel b, on Sun 8 Nov 1:19PM

  11. Dirty @#$%

    From rafascrackingup, on Sun 8 Nov 12:39PM
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