Sunday 14th October 2007

AND THE WINNER IS.........FALVIA PENNETTA
by Barry Wood

In a field that included two players from the top 10, the Wimbledon champion and a French Open semi-finalist, not many would have picked the eventual winner of the PTT Bangkok Open. It was Italy's Flavia Pennetta, who beat Yung-Jan Chan 6-1 6-3 on a day in which the weather almost won instead.

Hours of rain after Flavia won the first set made it doubtful if the match would finish on Sunday, but the players finally got back on court at 8.20 and Pennetta quickly wrapped things up. The rain delay was four hours 20 minutes, with the actual match time one hour 24 minutes.

"I'm very happy about this tournament," said the new champion. "I didn't expect something like this, I have to be honest. I beat two great players, Peer and Williams, so it's a good victory for me. This is not my best court (surface) for me. I don't like to play a lot on hard court. I prefer clay and grass, so it's a very important tournament for me."

Chan didn't make the best of starts, double-faulting twice in a row to drop her serve in the opening game. Two more breaks gave Pennetta the set, but after the rain delay Chan looked briefly as though she might stage a fightback. She broke to lead 2-1, but Pennetta responded by winning five of the next six games and fought off three break points in the final game to clinch her fourth career title.

"It's always tough when it's raining and you go out on the court and you come back," said Pennetta. "It's tough to stay concentrated and don't think that you're playing the final. Everyone expected me to win today, but I went on the court thinking about she's a good player and she's been playing very good tennis this week.

"I knew from the first moment this match was going to be very tough if I don't play my best tennis and if I'm not there on every point. I didn't play great tennis, not a lot of winners, not spectacular things, but I did the correct things to take this match home."

Chan is only 18 and was playing her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final, but said she wasn't overwhelmed at the occasion.

"I wasn't really nervous and it was just like a normal match, but I just didn't play well. She played really, really well and didn't make much mistakes, and her footwork was pretty good," said Chan. "It's my first final and I'm disappointed, but I will have a chance again in the future."

The doubles final, between Ayumi Morita and Junri Namigata of Japan and China's Tiantian Sun and Zi Yan, was cancelled after Morita withdrew with illness.

Let the last word go to the PTT Bangkok Open 2007 champion, Flavia Pennetta.

"I spent a good time here. It's a nice place and everything is very comfortable and the people are very nice, and it's good to spend my time in Thailand. I would like to go in Phuket - maybe next year!"