By Alberto Amalfi
© Tony Chang/Chang Photography

(November 7, 2010) Flavia Pennetta created commanding closure to clinch Italy's third Fed Cup championship. Pennetta picked apart 18-year-old Fed Cup debutante Coco Vandeweghe, 6-1, 6-2,  as defending champion Italy claimed its third Fed Cup championship in the past five years with a 3-1 victory over the United States at the San Diego Sports Arena.

"It's great. It's unbelievable. I cannot believe it," Pennetta said. "It's something really exciting and special for me and for my team and for my country. It's really, really special."



It marked the second straight year Pennetta closed out the Fed Cup final against the United States. Last November, she beat Melanie Oudin, 7-5, 6-2, to seal Italy's 4-0 victory over the USA on the red clay of Reggio Calabria.

Playing her 137th match of the year, Pennetta turned exhaustion to elation. She dropped serve in the first game of the match then reeled off eight consecutive games to dismiss the 114th-ranked Vandeweghe, the first American since Chanda Rubin in 1995 to make her Fed Cup debut in a final.

"I always think in Fed Cup you can beat everyone, you can lose with everyone. It's not easy to play for your country, to give your best all the time when you are on the court, because sometimes you can be really nervous and you can have a panic attack," Pennetta said. "But I really enjoy to play for my country. I really enjoy to play for this team. We are really friends with each other. We spend so much time together. It's nice to be here after five years
together again in the final."

If Pennetta was weary from the physical demands of playing her 73rd singles match of the season, she did not show it in a 13-and-a-half minute second game in which she fought back from a 0-40 deficit and converted her fourth break point when Vandeweghe sliced a backhand into the bottom of the net.

Vandeweghe has a vicious first serve and a hellacious kick serve for a second serve but was undone by three double faults in the game, which proved to be the pivotal point of the match as Pennetta transformed an 0-1 deficit into a 6-1, 2-0 lead before a skittish Vandeweghe finally stopped the bleeding.

"I think she was, of course, a little bit nervous. But in this case you can play your best tennis or you can go in panic attack. It’s not easy for her of course to go in the
court 2-1 down and have the chance to go into hole," Pennetta said. "But she plays good tennis. I think she was just too nervous after like the second game, when I won the second game, 14 or 15 minutes, really long game. But since then I starting to play really aggressive, I was really consistent, I didn't make a lot of mistake, I was moving her a lot. I just try to play my tennis, and she was a little bit in difficult."

The 6-foot-1 Vandeweghe is still growing into her game. Coco can run hot and cold and though she showed flashes of the prodigious power she displayed in dispatching Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva in San Diego in July she struggled to put enough shots in play to really push Pennetta.

Vandeweghe left the court in tears and was still feeling the pain of loss she will likely learn from as she teared up during the post-match press conference.

"I'm very disappointed in myself and the way that it turned out," Vandeweghe said. "But I tried my best out there, fought as hard as I could (tearing up). It's a tough situation I'm going into, but I'm going to play as hard as I can, play the way I know how to play, do the best I can out there."

Overlooked on opening day, Oudin was overwhelming today.

Bypassed to play on day one, Oudin answered the call today to keep American hopes alive. A pumped-up Oudin pounded out a 6-3, 6-1 victory over French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in the opening reverse singles match. It was Oudin's first victory over a top 10 opponent this season and cut Italy's lead to 2-1.



Oudin replaced Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who was suffering from cramps and a sinus infection, as a singles starter. U.S. captain Mary Joe Fernandez was planning to play Oudin in the second match against Pennetta, but made the lineup switch because she believed Oudin was fresher and stronger than the ailing Mattek-Sands.

"I'm a big believer everything happens for a reason. I wasn't planning on playing Melanie first
up today," Fernandez said. "I was hoping that Bethanie was going to be the one to start, then Melanie would have played Pennetta. But things happen. Bethanie cramped up yesterday in the second set. She has a sinus infection. I didn't want to take the risk of her not
being a hundred percent. She felt better today. She felt like she could go out there. Again, my gut told me I got someone who has fresh legs, someone who competes well, loves the pressure, let's go with that. We had to change it up. We hadto adapt. We got ourselves back in there. We were right back in there."

An inspired Oudin broke Schiavone five straight times in beating the seventh-ranked Italian for the first time in three meetings.

"I came out with no fear today. I wasn't afraid of losing," Oudin said. "I went out there and played with courage and I did it. My serve was key. I actually hit a few aces and she wasn't hurting me on my serve."

While Oudin kept the Americans alive, Pennetta completely snuffed out any hopes of a historic comeback.

World No. 2 doubles player Pennetta, who partnered Gisela Dulko to win the WTA Championships in Doha last Sunday, looked tentative in surrendering serve to start the match. But she bounced back to break in a 13 and a half minute second game to level the match and ignite an eight-game run.



Passed over as a singles starter in favor of the 114th-ranked Vandeweghe on Saturday, Oudin was pressed into action today and responded with one of her best matches of the year in raising her Fed Cup record to 4-1 this season.

"It's pretty amazing. I haven't beaten a top 10 player all year so for it to happen in the Fed Cup final in one of my last matches of the year is incredible," Oudin said. "I've always loved playing Fed Cup. It brings out the best in people."

Oudin fired 13 winners and slammed an ace on match point to close out the victory.

Less than a half an hour later Vandeweghe tried to maintain momentum as she broke Pennetta in the opening game then raced out to a 40-0 lead on her serve.

The grueling game spanned more than 13 minutes and by the time it was done Vandeweghe was perspiring profusely and Pennetta's game plan was clear: keep the ball between the lines and forced the teenager to do something special to win points.

  1: Francesca Schiavone (ITA) def. CoCo Vandeweghe (USA) 6-2, 6-4

  2: Flavia Pennetta (ITA) def. Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) 7-6(4), 6-2

  3: Melanie Oudin (USA) def. Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 6-3, 6-1

  4: Flavia Pennetta (ITA) def. CoCo Vandeweghe (USA) 6-1, 6-2

  5: Liezel Huber / Melanie Oudin (USA) v Sara Errani / Roberta Vinci (ITA) not played