French Open forecast: Flavia Pennetta
Flavia Pennetta
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We can’t wait for the French Open and while there is an indisputable favourite in the men’s game by the name of one Rafael Nadal, the women’s scene is proving to be a different ball game.
With the world No.1 spot occupied by six women in the last year – Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and now Dinara Safina – the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is wide open, making the Grand Slams almost comparable to the horse-racing Grand National.
With this in mind, we’re gonna to take a look at the potential contenders for this month’s French Open.
Thursday Spotlight: Flavia Pennetta
The lowdown
Feisty Flavia sure has turned a lot of heads in the last 12 months as she’s been enjoying a fine time on tour. The bubbly 27-year-old currently at No.14 in the rankings enjoyed her best season to date in 2008 breaking back into the top 20, bagging two tour titles (Vina del Mar and Acapulco) and reaching her first ever Grand Slam quarter-final in New York.
2009 has been similarly impressive with Flavia racking up an 18-11 singles match-record and an even better 18-5 doubles match-record. She struggled slightly in the early hard-court season, only notching up third and fourth round bests in Melbourne and Indian Wells, but as soon as she hit her favourite clay-court surface, she made the final in Acapulco in February and the semi-final in Stuttgart last week losing to Venus Williams and Dinara Safina respectively.
Awesome Fed Cup performances have also raised her status in 2009. She helped Italy dismantle France in the first round in February, and more recently in April, she led her nation to victory against the mighty Russian favourites to make the final later in the year.
Potential
Brindisi-born Pennetta may have been rocking around the tour since 1999. However, it’s only recently that she has started to make an impact. This is probably due to her increasing ability to consistently topple world No.1s, with her list of casualties including Martina Hingis, Justine Henin, Amelie Mauresmo, Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic. She is also one of only seven women to beat Venus on three successive occasions.
The verdict
With all but one of Flavia’s six Sony Ericsson WTA Tour titles coming on the ‘dirt’, and with an ambition to crack the top ten, it seems that Pennetta could be in for a cracking French Open flight. Can she keep her calm though?
