Flavia Pennetta beats Samantha Stosur for LA Women’s Tennis Championships title

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Wilson Blade 9

Flavia PennettaTenth seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy defeated Australian 13th seed Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-3 in the final of the LA Women’s Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife to claim her eighth and biggest singles title.

Stosur committed eight double faults and was broken four times, including three in the second set. In addition, the 25-year-old Stosur made 32 unforced errors, compared to Pennetta’s 16.

Last year’s LA finalist Pennetta pulled off two Top 10 upsets to reach the final. She defeated Nadia Petrova and Vera Zvonareva in back-to-back matches, before overcoming former world No.1 Maria Sharapova in the semifinals.

Pennetta is now on an 11-match winning streak, winning back-to-back titles in Palermo and Los Angeles. Doubles specialist Stosur, who has 22 doubles titles to her name, fell to 0-5 in singles finals after this latest defeat.

Winning the LA Women’s Tennis Championships title Pennetta earned $107,000. Interestinlgy, although it’s Pennetta’s eighth singles title, it’s only her second one from a non-claycourt tournament. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

6 COMMENTS

  1. Can someone please explain to me why do women tennis trophies look like punch bowls, flower vases, silver platters; stuff that one might use at a cocktail party.

    I watched the second set of the final and it lacked high level of play. In the middle of this set it as a classic choker vs. choker match. In the end Pennetta upped her level of play while Stosur kept committing unforced errors.

    This tournament was fun it had everything.
    1)Divapova’s run
    2)Last year’s runner up, this year champion.
    3)Stosur impressive run, only to choke in the final.
    4)Stella McCurse making its presence felt.
    5)Ivanovic’s problems continuing.
    6)Ur-Rad and her sister Agnieszka reaching the QF.
    7)Upsets: Jie over Dinara. Divapova over Azarenka
    8)I forgot what eight was for. 😛
    9)On paper upset: Divapova over Bondarenko.
    10)Perfect L.A. weather, not too hot not too cold.

  2. It’s better for them to look like vases and punch bowls than like some attempts of a work of art. I’ve seen some trophies that even scared me for a moment! I like trophies not made of glass, and that look like “real” trophies (which means the first picture I have in mind when somebody says “trophy”), such as the men’s Wimbledon one ;).

    Nice retrospection of the tournament, Carlos! And I would add 11) It was held in your hometown.

  3. I don’t think this tournament is going to be held next year. First, I don’t think the tour is promoting this event enough. Almost all of the matches lack more than half of the audiences. It’s been like this since a few years ago. And plus, the event has no sponsor now.

    Too bad Maria didn’t win this, I was hoping she would stop getting exhausted after making a good run. Oh well, who can blame her, three sets in less than 24 hours. Good luck in Toronto.

  4. Teerin either you are making excuses for Divapova or are you saying that she is not physically ready for the every day wear and tear of tennis? I hope is the latter.

    About the tournament, you make good points. The same thing happened to Indian Wells. At one point it was considered to move it to a middle east country. There were a lot of people who invested money including Chris Everett who did not want to see the tournament (Indian Wells)out of the U.S. I don’t see people investing money in the L.A. tournament. Due to the bad economic shape that the U.S. is in, there are few companies or corporations willing to invest money as a sponsor. If look at Indian Wells the sponsor, is a French bank not an American company/corporation. Here are a few reasons why it had empty seats A)California has right now the highest unemployment rate in its history, this mean that people are cutting back on their expenses. B)Tickets prices are expensive, except for the first two days for the outer courts. C)Tennis is not a popular sport in the U.S. it maybe at best the sixth most popular sport in the country. D)The U.S. tennis fans will follow the ATP instead of WTA. E)For the average U.S sport fan the final had two unknown players. F)The tournament had to compete with the L.A. baseball teams both the Dodgers and Angels were home during the weekend (dodgers were home for the entire week); both teams having very good seasons meaning cheaper prices for a more popular sport. I hope the tournament made money.

  5. Good points, Carlos. I’m sure times will change. And I think we can safely say that all non-Grand Slams are having empty seats for most matches. Even Grand Slams are often empty in the early rounds. I’m sure something unexpected will happen and return the glare.

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