Mauresmo Broken Seven Times in Poor Showing Against Pennetta

he serve may be the most important shot in tennis, but when your opponent hits 40 unforced errors in two sets, you can afford to be a little off-target. That’s exactly what No. 16 seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy did in her fourth round match against France’s Amelie Mauresmo. Despite making just 42% of her first serves, Pennetta won in a romp, 6-3, 6-0.

Mauresmo, the No. 32 seed, came into today’s match with three encouraging wins over Nathalie Dechy, Kaia Kanepi, and Julie Coin. She played like a completely different player today, serving 14 double faults and making 26 other unforced errors. Her forehand and backhand had little sting, and Pennetta capitalized on this by striking 24 winners on the day. The Italian’s groundstrokes showed good range, but she won the majority of her points by simply waiting out her error-prone opponent.

After a marathon opening four games (they took 28 minutes to complete), things began to quickly settle down in Pennetta’s favor. She broke Mauresmo in the next game for a 3-2 lead and never looked back, breaking her opponent seven times in total. She advances to her first career U.S. Open quarterfinal with the victory.

After the match, Pennetta beamed about her career-best performance. “I didn’t start a good tournament, but I try and fight every point and keep going,” said Pennetta. “To be here today is unbelievable but I hope it’s not finished.”

Mauresmo struck 26 unforced errors in the first set, but things – somehow – got worse in set two. Pennetta broke Mauresmo in all three of her service games, winning the final set 6-0. It was the second time this happened at Louis Armstrong Stadium on Monday – Dinara Safina also ended her match with a 6-0 shutout against Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Mauresmo had reached the semifinals of her last two hard court tournaments (Cincinnati and New Haven), so this is surely a painful exit from Flushing Meadows.

Discussing her serve after the match, Mauresmo blamed only herself. “No, basically it was coming from me,” she said. “Definitely something that we will try to analyze and work on it for the next tournaments.”