Flavia Pennetta beat Coco Vandeweghe 6-1 6-2 in the fourth singles rubber of the Fed Cup final in San Diego, secured the second straight Fed Cup title for Italy and their third in five years. Italians believe that their close friendship, love of the game and their country plays a great role in their Fed Cup achievements.
Here are the words of Italy captain Corrado Barazzutti:
The secret is this is a team which has played with each other a lot and they all respect each other. And they love to play in this competition. In some way, they feel that this competition is their competition, our competition. It is almost like a love affair. They feel it’s something very important to play for Italy, for their country.
And here’s what Pennetta said after winning her eighth successive Fed Cup match:
I really enjoy playing for my country and I really enjoy playing for this team. We are all friends with each other and we spend so much time together.
The final score of the Italy vs. the United States Fed Cup final is 3-1. Italy won the first two matches with Francesca Schiavone defeating Coco Vandeweghe 6-2 6-4, and Flavia Pennetta beating Bethanie Mattek Sands 7-6(4) 6-2. Melanie Oudin won that sole match for the US with a 6-3 6-1 victory over Schiavone. And finally, as mentioned, Pennetta clinched the victory.
The leader in the number of Fed Cup titles is still the US with 17, Australia has seven, the Czech Republic and Spain follow with five, Russia has four, and Italy has three now.
I am happy that Italy has won, the team deserved it for the continued commitment that has always given the competition. On the other hand I wonder how real is the value of this victory… U.S. has reached the final thanks to a team of reserves, so in the end what is fair to say that Italy is the strongest team in the world? Personally I do not think so, but simply that Italy is one of the few teams really interested in FedCup.
Francesca, Italy’s victory shouldn’t be diminished by the fact that other nations couldn’t gather their strongest players. Everything counts, especially when it comes to team play and Italy proved to be the strongest as a team.
Marija, I’m very proud of the girls because they really do a lot for tennis in our country, unfortunately it’s a sport that the Italian press ignores more often, when they talk about is only on the results achieved by the girls… When something important happens, such as Francesca’s victory at Roland Garros, everyone is ready to get excited, but then all breaks down in a day, so I am very grateful to them, even if all their efforts for the country runs out in two minutes of sports news -.-
Ironically, I think they get more recognition abroad, regarding to my question I think the answer lies in the definition of team, you’re right, they are really a team and in this sense are certainly the strongest 🙂
Francesca, yes, that was exactly my point, the definition of the team.
Another terrific performnce by the best Fed Cup team around atm 🙂
Got to make the most of their current/recent success in the competion though as, sadly, I suspect that 2011 will be the last time the 4 of them play together 🙁
Flavia has talked of retiring after the 2012 Olympics, Franny cannot go on forever either, and sadly I cannot see any Italian players anywhere near capable of replacing them. It could be a long, long wait for more success when those 2 retire 🙁