On Labor day, at the US Open, the great day of Italian tennis is celebrated, obviously veering towards women – which men, as we know, trudge -, but also the exit, which dangerously resembles a farewell from past greatness, of Roger Federer, knocked out by Tommy Robredo in the round of XNUMX.
Let's proceed in order. Our tennis ladies are now a certainty and hardly make the news anymore. On Wednesday, Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci will face each other in the quarterfinals to compete for access among the top four players of the tournament, just like Sara Errani last year.
The Taranto, no. 10 in the world (confirming its continuity at high levels) is no longer a surprise. To get to this point she had to deal with another Italian, the new recruit Camila Giorgi, settled in two sets (6-4, 6-2) with an overbearing comeback after a shock start. For the 1-year-old from Macerata, an exhilarating tournament in any case (among her victims also the former world number XNUMX Caroline Wozniacki) and an implicit promise, that of not making her Italian sisters regret when her time comes.
More surprising, if you like, was Flavia Pennetta's tournament, who hasn't lost a set yet and defeated three seeded players in a row: Sara Errani, Svetlana Kuznetsova and the Romanian Halep, after a 6-hour suspension for rain. A surprise up to a certain point, of course, because the Brindisina has already played three more times (the last one in 2011) in the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows, but in the last two years she seemed to have gotten lost in too many physical troubles and having taken the road without return leading to decline.
A road on which Roger Federer also seems to tread dangerously, even if reciting the De profundis for such a champion is always imprudent, if not wrong. The Swiss didn't just lose, but was humiliated in 3 sets by a player, the honest Robredo, who had never beaten him in 10 matches.
Federer, who lacked one of his best skills, that of placing the decisive draw in important moments, wasting an infinite theory of break points, now risks falling out of the top eight and being excluded from the Masters Cup. , the awaited challenge in the quarterfinals with Rafa Nadal: now, for the Majorcan, the road to the final seems smooth, with Gasquet, Ferrer and, of course, Robredo on that side of the scoreboard.
On the other hand, however, everything seems set for a semifinal between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic who will have to contend, among others, with the revived Hewitt and with a Berdych who is always awaited for the definitive leap in quality.
