A Victory and a Farewell

NEW YORK—As it began, the U.S. Open women’s final had the look of a party that was missing its guest of honor. Celebrities off all stripes—Robert Redford, Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union, Queen Latifah, Michael Douglas, James Taylor—crowded the suites in Arthur Ashe Stadium, while 20,000 others, many of whom had paid top dollar to be there, filled the rest of the arena. The only problem was, the star they had come to see and cheer, Serena Williams, had been forced to cancel at the last minute.

What none of the fans in Ashe knew at the time was that, while they wouldn’t get to see Serena’s coronation, they would be treated to a very different type of bash, one that combined elements of a debut, a reunion, a surprise party, and a retirement gala. No, Serena wouldn’t make history on this Saturday by winning the calendar-year Grand Slam; but her fellow 33-year-old, Flavia Pennetta, would, by winning her first Grand Slam singles title on the same evening that she announced her retirement from tennis. Along the way, Pennetta and her opponent, Roberta Vinci, a fellow Italian who also happens to be an old friend, made it a bittersweet celebration for tennis fans in New York, in Italy, and around the world.

If Williams had been going for the Grand Slam, a thick mix of tension and anticipation would have filled Ashe from row A to row triple-Z. Instead, Pennetta and Vinci brought a comfortable sense of camaraderie to the court. Earlier in the day, they had chatted for so long in the lunch room that Boris Becker jokingly asked them, as he walked past, whether they were aware that they were supposed to play each other in a couple of hours. Once they were on court, instead of posing stiffly at the net for their pre-match photos, Pennetta and Vinci hugged and mugged for the camera, bantering all the time. They picked up their conversation as soon as the match was over, laughing and whispering to each other like classmates as they waited for the trophy ceremony to begin. Pennetta, it would turn out, had news for her friend.

“I’ve known her since...ever,” Pennetta said of the 32-year-old Vinci. “We moved to Rome together when we were 13, and lived in the same room for four years. We’ve shared so many things together.”

“Before the match we say, doesn’t matter. We’re gonna win. It’s going to be a big win for both of us. It’s going to be a really big win for both of us.”

Despite that, both women started as if it very much did matter what happened on court. There may have been a friend on the other side of the net, but this was the first Grand Slam singles final for both women, and they were nervous. Vinci was especially anxious to start, but neither could reproduce the brilliance that had helped them knock off the world's No. 1 and No. 2 players the previous day. Vinci’s slices floated instead of biting, her volleys flew wide, and her forehand, so penetrating against Williams on Friday, sailed long. Pennetta’s backhand, a laser against Simona Halep in the semifinals, lacked the same sting. The match in general lacked the sting of tooth-and-nail competition.

“I didn’t play my best tennis today,” Pennetta admitted. “I have to say I was scared and tight from the beginning. Was not easy for me to hit the ball in the same way I did yesterday.” And that was the winner talking.

The first set lasted for 60 minutes, and ended with Vinci making four unforced errors to lose a tiebreaker. The level of play improved in the second set, but it improved a good deal more on Pennetta’s side. She found her range on her backhand, and most important, she closed out this 7-6 (4), 6-2 win like a Grand Slam champ. At 4-2, Pennetta held with a half volley from the baseline that she turned into a lob winner. In the final game, she lasered a backhand winner down the line to reach 0-30, and finished the match by putting a forehand on the sideline for another winner, her 28th. Pennetta’s timing had been impeccable: As the two women walked to the net to shake hands, rain had begun to fall.

“Was tough today,” Vinci said, “Flavia played unbelievable, just too good.”

Pennetta’s timing was perfect, and so was her sense of what to do for an encore. If her victory was a surprise—she had played 48 majors before winning her first, the most of any Open era Slam champion—what she did afterward left jaws dropped around the stadium. As the trophy ceremony wound down, Pennetta announced that she would this would be her last U.S. Open, and, as she would clarify later, she would retire at the end of 2015.

Why? Why leave the sport you love when you’re playing it better than you ever have?

“Sometimes it’s getting hard for me to compete,” Pennetta explained. “This is the important point. When you are in the court, when you have to play 24 weeks in the year, you have to fight every week. And if you don’t fight every week in the same way I did today, it’s gonna be bad...I don’t feel like I have this power anymore sometimes.”

Pennetta said she had been considered retirement for the last few years, but that she didn’t know what else she wanted to do. Speaking to ESPN after the match, she made an interesting admission: “I don’t know what I like.” She said that her life after tennis will begin as one of self-discovery.

From my sightings of Flavia around the tour, she certainly appeared to be devoted to the court. Two years ago in Eastbourne, walking through the facility early in the morning, I saw her out hitting on an otherwise empty set of courts. This was during a down period in her career, and at 31 her best years seemed to be behind her. Pennetta grew frustrated as she practiced, bouncing her racquet on the grass and threatening to smash it into a wooden scoreboard at the back. She was trying, and repeatedly failing, to hit a target that her coach had placed in the far corner of the court. Finally, Flavia found her range with her forehand, and began to find the target. For the last 10 minutes of her session, she couldn’t miss it. This, it seemed to me, was the profesional’s secret to making it look so easy during a match: Making it so hard in practice.

Pennetta didn’t always make it look easy, but she played with an appealing mix of athleticism and elegance. She could slide in a drop shot for a winner on one point, and drill a backhand past her opponent on the next. She would punctuate one point with a smile, and the next with a fist-pump. Her walk and her posture were always regal, but never haughty. Flavia added personality—flavor—to the sport, without being overly dramatic about it. By all accounts, her Open win will be as popular in the locker room as her presence on tour will be missed.

The fans at the Open came for a home-country crowning, but they got an Italian reunion, and a parting, instead. The evening may have lacked competitive tension, but it had warmth. With her play, and her humor, Vinci made herself an instant fan favorite in New York over the last two days; Flavia always has been. And while Pennetta’s title and retirement will be the lead stories on Sunday, the most fitting image of the night wasn’t of her waving good-bye or holding the trophy over her head. It was the image of the two Italians at the net after the last point had been played, in what may have been the longest post-match embrace of any Grand Slam final. Pennetta's and Vinci's shared history, begun two decades ago, had led them both here, and they could each feel that they had a share in the winning result. This party hadn't been missing its guests of honor, after all.