With Serena Williams gunning for the first calendar year Grand Slam in almost three decades at the US Open last September, the tennis world was waiting on history.
– Swiss Indoors: Federer beats Nadal to win seventh Basel title
– Singapore: Radwanska beats Kvitova to win WTA Finals
– Fed Cup: Sharapova upbeat ahead of Russia’s final against Czech
The people did not get the seminal moment they were expecting as Roberta Vinci foiled Williams’ hopes in the semi-finals, but instead, were rewarded with one of the most inspiring and jaw-dropping sequence of events as Flavia Pennetta won the US Open and then announced minutes later that she was retiring from the sport at season-end.
At 33 years old, the endearing Italian became the oldest female first-time grand slam champion in the Open Era and after 15 years of ploughing through the tour, overcoming injuries, illness and personal problems, Pennetta managed to do what every athlete dreams of achieving – ending the career on a high note.
For avid tennis fans, Pennetta is a household name. She was the first Italian woman to enter the top-10 back in 2009, she had reached the semis of the US Open in 2013 and made five more major quarter-finals, was doubles world No1 and had helped Italy win four Fed Cups.
But her triumph in New York allowed the entire world to fall in love with her – from the way she flung her racquet in the air upon victory, to the heart-warming hug she gave her lifelong friend and countrywoman Vinci at the net, to the on-court speech she gave that was piercing in its sincerity.
Pennetta played the very last match of her career last Thursday at the WTA Finals in Singapore and she goes out knowing that she inspired millions out there by showing that it’s never too late to conquer your dreams.
“I think at this age you can feel everything in a different way,” Pennetta told Sport360 in Singapore, reflecting on what it meant to her to win a major this late in her career.
“When you are young, everything is going to come and you just follow the river. But when you’re a little bit older you’re starting to understand more things and appreciate things more.
“When I was really young, I was going around the world and I didn’t feel this kind of feeling to want to go home and see my parents. I could be around the world for three months without seeing them and everything was just fine.
“But with age, all the time I was feeling more homesick, like after one month I need to see my parents. And also when you go back you start to feel how life has changed because time has passed and you see your grandma is starting to get older.
“And I start thinking about how many things I’m losing because I’m not there. And also your friends, they’re having kids and you didn’t see those first moments with them… so everything is going to be different when you start to get old.”
Pennetta, like a true Italian, is poetic in her discourse. There’s also an aura of serenity that has surrounded her since she announced her retirement.
While some of her post-US Open statements included hints that she may play the Olympics next year, she spoke with more conviction about hanging up her racquets at the WTA Finals.
“I gave almost 20 years of my life to tennis and there is a point where you have to decide what to do and I think it’s the right moment for me,” said Pennetta.
Like all players, Pennetta has struggled with injuries. But some athletes are handed tougher deals than others and Pennetta had plenty to tackle from the very start.
When she was just a teenager, she got typhus – a bacterial disease – which forced her to be hospitalised and quarantined for three weeks. She also had a knee injury, and two wrist problems – one that kept her out for most of 2012.
Congrats @Flavia_Pennetta on an incredible career!! #WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/vQ9K5bK9Yb
— WTA (@WTA) October 29, 2015
Asked what she considers the biggest lesson she has learned from her career, Pennetta said: “There are some moments where everything looks so black that you just want to leave everything, don’t play anymore and go home and stay in bed for I don’t know how many hours or days. But I was always like a fighting girl. The one that’s ‘okay, I can be in bed one day, but the second one I have to wake up and go to practice and start again and fight for what you want’.
“And in the end with all the results I had in the last two years, it’s because of hard work. You cannot just think, expecting things will come to you because they have to come. No. You have to go for them all the time.”
On what she’s most concerned about looking ahead, Pennetta added: “I think it’s going to be tough to not have a routine. I have to change everything and reschedule my day so it’s going to be a little bit weird. Because normally we know what we have to do, how many hours of tennis, gym… So this is going to be the big change I’m going to have.”
Although women’s tennis often comes off as a community devoid of friendships, for Pennetta, it felt like a family. You’d struggle to find one player who speaks ill of her.
After beating Vinci in New York, they sat side by side chatting and laughing, conveying the message that rivals can also be friends. Pennetta and Vinci are two of four Italian women who have done wonders for their country in the sport, all in the same generation.
Francesca Schiavone won the French Open in 2010, Sara Errani and Vinci are grand slam finalists, and the quartet all share feistiness and grit that stood out on tour.
“We started in 2006 with the first victory in Fed Cup. Since then, everything was growing,” explains Pennetta. “I became top-10 in 2009. I think that was a really motivational moment for all of them. Francesca won Roland Garros, then Sara came, then Roberta, then me again. There is always one of us that gave a good result.”
While Pennetta said she will miss the people on tour, she knows she will be around for a fair amount of time as she will attend some events to watch her fiance Fabio Fognini, who is ranked No. 22 on the ATP.
Unlike the calm Pennetta, Fognini is temperamental on court and she admits it is tougher for her watching him than playing herself.
“I get really tense. He plays unbelievable but sometimes it’s easy when you’re outside, you see the things so easy. So it’s normal that you just want to tell him ‘you’re doing like this because of this’. Because when you’re on court you’re just focused on you and sometimes you don’t see it,” she says.
Does she have any special signals to calm him down during matches?
“No, not really. I think the only one who can handle the situation is him. He’s starting to be much better, I think he improved a lot. He can be much better but I mean, it’s a good way,” she says.
