Dulko and Pennetta win Italian Open doubles title
Dulko and Pennetta win Italian Open doubles title
Flavia Pennetta and Gisela Dulko scored a 6-4, 6-2 win over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Nuria Llagostera Vives to win the Italian Open doubles title in Rome.
Pennetta’s win gave the home crowd something to cheer about in a match which proved to be a bridge too far for Martinez Sanchez, coming as it did a few hours after her win over Jelena Jankovic in the singles final.
Whatever the circumstances behind the final, Dulko and Pennetta’s title was nevertheless the result of some hard work in the previous rounds, including a super tie-break win the night before in the semi-finals over top seeds Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova.
The match was a close affair in the opening exchanges but it was the unfortunate Martinez Sanchez whose tiring serve was broken first in the seventh game, and that was enough to give the Italo-Argentinean pairing the first set. Breaks were exchanged to open the second set, but Martinez Sanchez was broken for a third time and Pennetta and Dulko coasted home comfortably, to the delight of the Foro Italico fans.
This is the second WTA Premier title of the season for the pairing after their win in Miami over Nadia Petrova and Samantha Stosur, and is particularly impressive in that they defeated both the No.1 seeds and last year’s Sony Ericsson Year-End Championships winners Martinez Sanchez and Llagostera Vives to take the trophy.
