The 26th seeded Flavia Pennetta has reached the Quarterfinals for the sixth time in seven years ending the 2011 Champion Samantha Stosur’s US Open campaign. The Italian won the match in 1 hour 18 minutes: 6-4, 6-4.
Stosur (the 22nd seed) has never beaten Pennetta at a tour level event in seven matches. The Australian has said that Pennetta seems to have no trouble handling her biggest weapons (her serve and forehand).
In the second game of the first set, Stosur blew a great opportunity to go up 2-0 by framing a return of serve. She had three more chances to break Panetta’s serve, but could not capitalize. Pennetta needed only one break of serve in the fifth game to secure the first set. Pennetta had 12 winners vs. 8 unforced errors while Stosur committed 15 unforced errors and had only 9 winners.
Pennetta served, especially well in the second set affording Stosur no break point opportunities and winning 83% of her service points. A break by Pennetta in the pivotal seventh game was all she needed to win this set. Again, unforced errors by Stosur (20 vs. 12 winners) were a problem for the Australian.
After the match, Stosur said that she felt that she had played well, but that on crucial points, Pennetta “had come up with goods”. Meanwhile the Italian felt that vey triumph over Stosur was perhaps her best match of the year.
In the Quarterfinals, Pennetta will face the 5th seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic. They have split the six matches they have played (3-3), with Kvitova winning their most recent encounter at the 2012 Olympics.
