BARCELONA, Spain - It has been a tough 12 months for Flavia Pennetta; ranked inside the Top 20 a year ago, the Italian suffered a left wrist injury that put her out of the game for much of the second half of 2006, and she is now trying to work her way back up those rankings as the competition heats up for the summer. But the popular Pennetta isn't discouraged, and this week she finds herself among the seedings in singles and doubles at the inaugural Barcelona KIA. Read more in her Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Blog.
-----
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Hello again everyone,
Well, Lupi and I weren't able to win the doubles title today. We didn't start very well, losing the first set, although we were still able to make it pretty close. I think we probably should have won it but it's always strange playing in a final in my opinion. But we got used to the atmosphere and we won the second set easily. In the third it was like I talked about yesterday - one point made all the difference. We lost the final in a match tie-break, 12-10; it was so close. Bad luck today...
But overall I had a good week. It had been a while since I even played eight, nine matches in the same week. I played lots of singles and doubles in Barcelona and it has definitely helped me feel better about my game. One week doesn't change it all but I want to keep going like this, and be more consistent every week. I hope this was just the start. I think I've been putting too much pressure on myself, because at this time last year I was in the Top 20 and now I'm far from it, but you cannot do that. I just need to work hard and enjoy my tennis, like I did this week, and I think results will come. I hope I can be in the Top 20 again, and even the Top 10.
So now it's off to 's-Hertogenbosch for me, to start my grass court season. I will probably play a few small events again after Wimbledon, like Palermo and Kitzbühel, just to get a lot of matches. Anyway, my flight leaves at 6:55am in the morning... It's about 10pm, maybe I should just go to the airport now :) I'm excited to go to the grass. I've been to the second week of Wimbledon the last two years but before that I would have told anyone it's not my favorite surface. But I've played pretty well there so now I don't know what to say! This year I just want to play match by match, though. I just want to play my best on every point.
So the Chinese was great last night. My mom also enjoyed it! In the beginning, she said she didn't want any, but then I made her try my lemon chicken and she liked it! Speaking of which, I've been getting some funny feedback from the blog - my sister called me today and asked me about taking mom to Chinese. She was surprised it went well, and said papa would never have gone for anything like that. I've gotten nice comments from friends too. I'm glad people are reading!
Soon I'm going to see my cousin who lives in Barcelona; she's making dinner and we will also have some friends over, spend time together... maybe we will also go out afterwards. But I can't stay out too late because of that flight!
I had fun doing this week's blog. I think it's important for everyone to know what it's like to be a tennis player, because it seems like such a glamorous life but I think not many is aware of the traveling, being away from home, staying in hotels... but we do still have a lot of fun. I love connecting with the fans. Hopefully, you guys had a good time reading this. I hope to do it again soon!
Thank you all and talk to you again soon...
Ciao!
-----
Friday, June 15, 2007
Hello everyone,
Unfortunately, I lost my singles semifinal to Shaughnessy today. It was a pretty tough match. I didn't start very well at all - I lost the first set 6-0. I was nervous and wasn't thinking clearly and I was hitting a little hard I think! But in the second and third sets I was feeling the ball more and playing better. I won the second and in the third I was leading 3-1, but I just didn't hang on. Because I haven't been winning lots of matches I think my confidence in the important points isn't at its best. But I am happy my tennis was good enough to get me into the semis!
I am happy about the doubles though; we won our semifinal and I'm in the final! It's a very important thing for me to play doubles. You can practice a lot of things for your singles and if you are winning your doubles matches that helps your confidence too. It can sometimes be hard to play doubles when you're still in the singles draw, but in my case right now I want as many matches as possible, so I'll play both. Singles, doubles, mixed, I'll play anything, wherever!
Tomorrow should be an interesting day. I think Meghann is very strong, and is probably the favorite to win... but you never know in tennis, and Gallovits has played well all week. We'll see about that one. And in the doubles final, Lupi and I are playing Nuria and Arantxa, and we are all friends. We started out together playing the $25K ITFs and practicing, seven or eight years ago. It's always tough to play against friends. But I just try to keep Flavia out and focus on my game when I'm in a match. It's tough to do that sometimes but if you want to keep going in the tournament you have to do that!
Another thing is that the new doubles rules with no-ad and the match tie-break instead of the third set, everything goes by so much faster. You have no time to really settle into a groove, you have to be focused on each point from the start.
The dinner was very good last night, by the way. We finished around 11:30pm and then I went home and fell asleep right when I hit the bed. We're actually going out to dinner right now - me, my mom, my coach and one of my friends. We're going to get Chinese. It is almost 11pm right now but with my matches, we didn't even get out of the tournament until a little while ago! I'm very hungry. I'll probably get lemon chicken, fried rice for sure... My mom has been eating Italian food for so long so she will be trying something different tonight. I don't know if she'll enjoy it but she'll be making some faces maybe... we'll see!
I'd like to thank Lupi and some of my other friends for hanging out with me after the singles match earlier. I was pretty disappointed and they were cheering me up and it's really nice of them. We spent some time together; I had a sandwich and coca cola so that helped :) Thank you guys!
I'll talk to you all tomorrow night!
Flavia
