Name |
Flavia Pennetta |
Height |
5' 7 3/4" |
Naionality |
Italian |
Date of Birth |
February 25, 1982 |
Place of Birth |
Brindisi, Puglia,itly |
Famous for |
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First Top 100 finish; won first of four ITF Circuit titles of season at ITF/Ortisei-ITA, which gave her a 'feed up' direct entry into Memphis, her Tour debut (l. 1r to Asagoe); won five ITF Circuit doubles titles; qualified for Sopot; on September 23, broke into Top 100 at No.100.
2003 - Reached first Tour SF, also debuted at all four Grand Slams; reached first Tour QF at Canberra as a qualifier, then surpassed that by reaching Hyderabad SF (d. Pierce in QF); in subsequent events reached QF at Bogota and Acapulco; after making Grand Slam debut at Australian Open, reached 3r at Roland Garros; in doubles, reached first Tour SF at Acapulco (w/Salerni); made debut for Italy at Fed Cup, winning both singles rubbers in Italy's 3-2 win over Sweden.
2004 - Season highlighted by first three Tour singles finals, at Acapulco (l. to qualifier Benesova), Palermo (d. top seed Koukalova in QF; l. to Medina Garrigues) and at Sopot (d. Koukalova in final to claim first career Tour title; afterwards on August 16, made Top 50 debut at No.45); SF at Budapest (l. to Jankovic) and QF at Canberra and Cincinnati (l. to top seed Davenport); d. world No.6 Petrova 16 76(4) 64 in 2r at Rome (overcame 3-1 deficits in second and third sets for first Top 10 win); ret. from 2r at Guangzhou w/left wrist sprain, forcing withdrawal from Tokyo [Japan Open], also withdrew from Philadelphia w/influenza.
2005 - Best season to date, highlighted by second and third Tour singles titles, win over reigning Roland Garros champion Henin-Hardenne and impressive doubles play; captured back-to-back Tier III clay court titles in February, at Bogota (as No.2 seed, d. qualifier Dominguez Lino in final) and Acapulco (as top seed, d. unseeded Cervanova in final); compiled 15-match, three-tournament clay court win streak (incl. 2004 Sopot title) stopped in Estoril 1r (as top seed, l. to qualifier Savchuk); also back-to-back Tier IV clay court SF in summer, at Modena (l. to eventual champion Smashnova) and Palermo (l. to Koukalova); QF five other times, at Gold Coast (l. to Golovin in 3s), Toronto [Canadian Open] (l. to eventual champion Clijsters; first Tier I QF), Bali (l. to eventual runner-up Schiavone 75 third set), Filderstadt (notched career-first Top 5 victory over world No.5 Henin-Hardenne en route; l. to Hantuchova) and Znrich (l. to Schnyder in 3s; second career Tier I QF); Grand Slam 4r debut at Wimbledon (notched 200th career win vs. Daniilidou in 3r; l. to Pierce), also equal-best performance at Roland Garros (l. 3r to Schnyder in 3s); SF or better five times in doubles, incl. career-first Tour doubles title at Los Angeles (w/Dementieva; d. Martfnez/Ruano Pascual en route), first major final at US Open (w/Dementieva; d. Petrova/Shaughnessy and Groenefeld/Navratilova; l. to Raymond/Stosur); career-high rankings in singles (No.23 on August 8) and doubles (No.22 on November 14); was 1-0 in 3-2 World Group I Play-off victory vs. Czech Republic (d. Peschke); withdrew from Charleston w/foot injury and from Linz w/left shoulder strain.
2006 - Season highlighted by three Tour singles finals and Top 20 debut but cut short due to injury; runner-up at Gold Coast (d. Golovin and WC Hingis in QF and SF; l. to Safarova 63 64 in final), Bogota (as top seed, l. to No.6 seed Domínguez Lino 76(3) 64 in final), Acapulco (as top seed, l. to No.2 seed Groenefeld 61 46 62 in final); now 3-5 lifetme in Tour singles finals; Estoril SF (l. to eventual champion Zheng), and Rome QF (l. to eventual champion Hingis); equal-best Grand Slam performance, with 4r at Wimbledon (as No.16 seed, l. to No.4 seed Sharapova 76(5) 36 63); 3r four times, incl. Australian Open (as No.20 seed, l. to No.16 seed Vaidisova), Roland Garros (as No.17 seed, l. to No.9 seed Schiavone 46 61 97), and San Diego (l. to Hingis in 3s); fell 2r three times, and 1r five times; one-time doubles titlist, at Bogota (w/Dulko), and one-time runner-up, at Berlin (w/Dementieva); singles Top 20 debut (at No.20) on January 9 (after Gold Coast) and reached career-high of No.16 on January 30 (after Australian Open); first struggles with injury came during spring (ret. w/right ankle sprain vs. Laine in Indian Wells 3r – withdrew from Miami) but missed most of summer and fall w/left wrist injury suffered in Montréal (ret. vs. Bartoli there and withdrew from US Open, Luxembourg, Stuttgart, Moscow, Zürich, Linz and Hasselt); only event played in fall was Fed Cup Final, where she went 0-1 in Italy’s 3-2 win over Belgium, their first Fed Cup title (l. to Henin-Hardenne 6-4 7-5, having led 3-0 first set and 5-2 second set; had been 1-1 in 4-1 1r win over France and 2-0 in their 3-1 SF win over Spain).