Can Flavia Pennetta be any cooler? The Italian won her maiden Grand Slam title playing her 49th major, at the age of 33 became the oldest first-time Grand Slam champion, climbed to a career-high ranking of No.8, and to top things off, in her trophy speech, she announced that she would leave the sport this year. Blessings are there in the love department of Flavia’s life as well, as she has a good man in her life right now, fellow tennis pro Fabio Fognini, who supported her from the stands during the US Open and then joined her in the trophy photoshoot at the top of Rockefeller Center in NYC.
Seeing Flavia with the US Open trophy and a nice man next to her is so heartwarming, especially for us who remember her ugly breakup with Carlos Moya back in 2007, which she described in her book Dritto al cuore (Straight to the Heart). Flavia’s later boyfriend that we knew of was Andrea Preti, while she started dating Fabio, five years her junior, probably in early 2014, and they are engaged now.
Flavia and Fabio are planning a future together, although there is no rush, as Flavia will primarily need to get accustomed to her new tennisless routine:
I want to know first who I am without tennis and what I like to do without tennis. How it’s going to be the life with [boyfriend Fabio Fognini] without tennis and what it’s like to live a life like a couple. I think it’s going to be a pretty good life.
And don’t think that these love birds are not making WTA players say “aaawww”. They brightened up Victoria Azarenka‘s day during the 2015 Australian Open! This tweet has stuck in my mind for months! 🙂
My morning at the site started seeing @flavia_pennetta and @fabiofogna being so cute with each other 😍😍😍#loveintheair 😁
— victoria azarenka (@vika7) January 24, 2015
And I’ll finish this post with a lovely Flavia quote:
I always tried to be, not a good player, but a good person.
We can feel it, Flavia!
I can see Fabio really enjoying the photoshoot. Good job Flavia and congratulations for a very great tennis career!
Emman Damian, this is such a victory for Flavia, such a rewarding moment, as everything in her life seems to have come together.
I still remember prior to their semifinal match at Indian Wells in 2014 during a delay in the runway to the court, Flavia and Li Na were both jumping and warming up, just laughing and talking with each other. They are both such classy friendly people, and as as Li Na has had a wonderful retirement with a new baby, I am sure Flavia will deservedly enjoy her retirement.
It’s is ironic that these two beautiful ladies were born one day apart in 1982: Flavia on Feb. 25 and Li Na on Feb. 26.