Flavia Pennetta proved once again that she is not only a clay court specialist by bringing home the biggest title of her career on the hard courts of Los Angeles.
Pennetta defeated two Top 10 players along the way to the LA Tennis Championships final before beating Australia’s Samantha Stosur in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday.
“I think my serve was very good today,” Pennetta said after the match. “Almost all week it helped me a lot in the important points. When I was aggressive I won the points today. That was a big step for me to improve my game. I’ve played a few finals before…I was ready to play the final today.”
The 27-year-old Italian pulled off two Top 10 upsets along the way, getting past Nadia Petrova and Vera Zvonareva in back-to-back matches before defeating Maria Sharapova in a three-set semifinal. Pennetta is now on an 11-match win streak: 5-0 to win Palermo a few weeks ago, 6-0 to win in Los Angeles.
With her victory in Los Angeles, Pennetta moves into a three-way tie for first place with Stosur and Marion Bartoli in the 2009 US Open Series women’s standings.
The unseeded team of Chuang Chia-Jung and Yan Zi beat Maria Kirilenko and Agnieszka Radwanska 6-0, 4-6, 10-7 to win the women’s doubles title.
