NEW YORK – Talk about going out on top: Flavia Pennetta won the U.S. Open for her first Grand Slam title at age 33, and then announced during the trophy ceremony she has decided to retire.
Pennetta did not have to beat Serena Williams in the final. Instead, Pennetta needed to get past the woman who ended Williams’ Grand Slam bid, Roberta Vinci. And Pennetta was able to do just that, pulling away in a matchup of Italians who were opponents and doubles partners as kids.
In one of the unlikeliest major finals in women’s tennis history, the 26th-seeded Pennetta beat Vinci 7-6 (4), 6-2 at Flushing Meadows on Saturday – a month after deciding she was ready to hang up her racket, a decision she kept private.
“This is how I say goodbye to tennis,” Pennetta said as her fiance, tennis player Fabio Fognini, captured the scene with his phone’s camera. “I couldn’t think to finish in a better way.”
That announcement served as a perfectly out-of-nowhere conclusion to a surprise-filled tournament, the biggest shock being Vinci’s win against Williams in the semifinals Friday. That stopped Williams’ 33-match winning streak in majors and her attempt to become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a single season.