Palermo Open: Kaia Kanepi Won Against Flavia Pennetta

Winning against the Italian top player Flavia Pennetta on Palermo tennis court, Kaia Kanepi gained a victory that sculpts her name in the history of professional tennis as the first Estonian able to win a WTA title.

Playing on Sunday against a Flavia Pennetta galvanized for being surrounded by her Sicilian supporters, Kaia Kanepi showed all her skills managing to close the match with a 6-4, 6-3 that – if seen alone, might not manage to explain the intense game that saw the Estonian player fighting hard against the Italian one.

After a quick and powerful start leaded by Pennetta, the first set of the match stayed quite open till the sixth game, when Kanepi’s last point brought the two players on a 3-3 result that then became 6-4 when the Estonian player tried to impose her tennis style over the Italian’s one.

Different story, instead, the one about the second game – as the 5-2 reached by Kaia Kanepi after seven games showed that the Italian Pennetta started to lose confidence on her possibilities to get back into the match and run after a gap that Kanepi managed to keep solid till the very end, when the point of the 6-3 gave her the joy of being the first Estonian winning a WTA title.

I’m very happy to win my first career title,” said 25-year-old Kanepi to AFP right after the match.

“This is the best moment of my career. After doing well at Wimbledon, now I’ve confirmed I’m playing really well. Flavia was playing well but today I was more aggressive in the most important moments.”

[Photo: theglobeandmail.com]