US Open 2015: Flavia Pennetta beats Simona Halep to reach final

 

 

Italy's Flavia Pennetta swept past Romanian second seed Simona Halep in under an hour to reach her first Grand Slam final at the US Open. 

The 33-year-old, seeded 26th, needed just 59 minutes to win 6-1 6-3 at Flushing Meadows.
She will face the winner of the second semi between top seed Serena Williams and fellow Italian Roberta Vinci.

Williams, 33, is two wins from completing the first calendar Grand Slam since 1988.

 

 Pennetta punishes poor Halep

The rankings suggested it would be Halep standing in her way should Williams make the final, but the world number two was well below par in the first semi-final.

Rain on Thursday had seen the match postponed by 14 hours to Friday morning but the delay clearly did not refresh the Romanian.

Pennetta looked much the sharper from the outset, breaking for 3-1 and then a second time as she raced through the opening set in 28 minutes.

Halep was leaking errors, with nine on the forehand side alone, and she appeared to be lacking her usual fight as she dropped serve immediately in the second.

The dire situation roused the Romanian to produce her best tennis of the match over three games, but it was no comeback.

A double fault brought Pennetta back on serve in game five and the Italian reeled off 15 points in a row on her way to taking the last five games