We the Italians September 21, 2015 - 68 | Page 25

st # 68 • SEPTEMBER 21 , 2015 wonderful sporting day experienced by our country last September 12 when Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci played againts each other in the final of the US Open 2015. Pennetta won 7-6 / 6-2 but the result was, after all, not that important: it was a day of celebration for Italian sport - and not only, not blurred even by the controversy over the rightful presence of the premier Renzi in the stands.  An outstanding and perhaps almost unique final, since both tennis players were not among the main favorites for the title: at the beginning of the tournament their odds for the final win were listed by bookmakers between 200 and 300 to 1. Despite this, with the typical perseverance and constancy of the Italians who find themselves with their backs to the wall, like two small ants Flavia and Roberta have overturned the initial prediction and came to a result that up to three weeks would be frankly unexpected.  For Flavia Pennetta this was the first Grand Slam win in her career, but not the first tournament: the player from Brindisi, currently in the top ten WTA, has won 4 times (2006, 2009, 2010, 2013) the Fed Cup, the top competition in women's tennis for national teams. A very mediatic character, Flavia, who has been several times at the center of the stage for her love life: the unfortunate history with Carlos Moya, from whom she was seduced and abandoned, and now the story with her colleague and compatriot Fabio WE THE ITALIANS | 25 www.wetheitalians.com