Brava, Italia ! No one has yet mentioned the BIG news of the day. For the first time in the history of professional tennis, two Italians will meet in the finals of a major championship, the U.S. Open. It was the first time that two Italians had even been in the semi-finals together. Then early today, Flavia Pennetta, born in Brindisi, Apulia, seeded 26th, upset the #2 seed Simona Halep of Romania. And then, incredibly, unseeded Roberta Vinci, born in Taranto and now based in Palermo, upset the world's #1 and top-seeded player in the tournament, Serena Williams, who was in pursuit of her fifth major championship in a row, and a very, very rare calendar year grand slam, meaning all four of the major championships in a single calendar year. One exciting day for La Bella Italia, as will be the day this weekend when these two finalists meet to determine which Italian lady will be the U.S. Open champion!
Posted by
California 🦋
5240 posts
Hi Larry,
Thanks for the great news!
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9103 posts
Perhaps they are better at tennis, but not at soccer;)
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7047 posts
We tennis fans were expecting this open to be exciting and were anticipating the results to be record-breaking, but not this way. With all due respect to Serena Williams I, for one, am happy and excited to see this record-breaking final - first time two Italian women face each other in a final vying for a major tennis title. I think it's a wonderful thing for the sport to have someone new in there and not having the outcome being almost a foregone conclusion. Congratulations to Ms Pennetta and Ms Vinci for getting where they are and congratulations to the winner, whoever it turns out to be!
Sorry the other poster couldn't just accept the 'yay' without throwing in the 'boo'.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15269 posts
Well Michael:
Women's soccer has never been popular in Italy. Soccer is still considered a mens' sports and it is still shunned by most young women, even the new generations, who much prefer tennis, volley-ball, swimming, skiing, and many other no-contact sports.
In fact in Italy women playing soccer always risk being labeled as lesbians, even in 2015. With time those prejudices will probably disappear, but it will take some time.
As far as men's soccer is concerned, I see you are gloating at the latest performances of the Italian team in the World Cup. It has been in fact a disgrace, but until the US Men's team manages to get at least to the semifinal I don't think you have much to gloat. Italy has won 4 World Cups after all and only Brazil has done better.
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9103 posts
Nice spin Roberto but the US also came ahead of Italy in 2010. So we have been statically and quantifiably better at soccer for eight years straight: USA!
In other news, Wales is currently ranked higher than England at soccer how did that happen?
Posted by
OP
Carmel, CA, USA
2455 posts
Hey guys, why the hijacking of this thread from the honorable OP? The subject is the remarkable achievement of Italy's women tennis stars, during this very weekend.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15607 posts
Yes, amazing that the #1 and #2 seeds both got knocked out in the semis.and wasn't Roberta Vinci super sweet in the post-match interview on-court?
Can't wait for the championship match . . .
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9103 posts
What happens on the field is all that matters! USA is also better at soccer than Spain, Portugal, England, and Ghana.
Posted by
Centennial, CO, US
2129 posts
Back to tennis ... I found it interesting that our local TV news was all about Roberta defeating Serena, but they never once mentioned Flavia's earlier upset of Simona, setting up the all Italian final!
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9103 posts
Soccer is a played on a field, football on a grid iron;) If you boys want to beat us at the next world cup perhaps you should hold practice sessions at this facility:)
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15607 posts
Charlene, you noticed! I watched bits of the press interviews. After one of Novak's second week wins, there were as many questions to him about Serena as about anything else. C'mon, this is what you ask the No. 1 men's player . . . what does his think about Serena?
Back to the Italians, wasn't it great that the prime minister flew in to support them both.
Posted by
Ormond Beach, Florida
72 posts
Watching these two women play such a great match and seemingly being such nice women and life-long friends, I can't wait to get to Italy and interact with more of the Italian people. I hope the winner has a wonderful, long and happy married life. Amazing that she had her crowning achievement just before retiring! Pam