Reuters: Sports News: Pennetta wary about facing friend

Reuters: Sports News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Marketing Mobile Apps This online course focuses on marketing efforts that will increase your app's exposure and establish a mobile app marketing plan. Enroll today for $99. From our sponsors

Pennetta wary about facing friend Sep 2nd 2013, 23:21 Flavia Pennetta of Italy returns to Simona Halep of Romania at the U.S. Open tennis championships in New York September 2, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Eduardo Munoz By Julian Linden NEW YORK | Mon Sep 2, 2013 6:10pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Italy's Flavia Pennetta regained her composure after a long rain delay to reach the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open on Monday. Pennetta completed a 6-2 7-6(3) win over Romania's Simona Halep, who has been one of the hottest players on tour, but it was anything but a routine straight-sets victory. After winning the opening set and building a 4-2 lead in the second, Pennetta suddenly lost her way as the hard-hitting Halep began to find her rhythm. The Romanian, who had captured four WTA titles since June, reeled off the next three games in a row and reached set point on her own serve when play was suspended because of a thunderstorm. The match did not resume for nearly five hours but when it did, the unseeded Pennetta burst out of the blocks quicker at Louis Armstrong Stadium. The 31-year-old successfully saved the set point and broke Halep's serve to level the score at 5-5. And although she lost her own service game to fall behind again, she immediately broke Halep for a second time then won the tiebreaker. "Today was a really tough match for me," said Pennetta. "It was tough to come back after so many hours. "Waiting all day...then starting a game, it's not easy to focus." Pennetta has never made it past the fourth round at any of the other grand slam but has flourished on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts, reaching the quarter-finals in the Big Apple in 2008, 2009, 2011 and now this year. "New York is New York guys, " she said in a courtside interview. "I love it." Pennetta faces a tough challenge because her next opponent, fellow Italian Roberta Vinci, is one of her closest friends. "It's going to be really bad for both us, it's not easy to play with your friend," said Pennetta. "It's strange because I grew up with Roberta and we've known each other since we were eight-years-old." (Reporting by Julian Linden,; editing by Gene Cherry) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions