Italy wins Fed Cup title over young US team

REGGIO CALABRIA, Italy — Italy won its second Fed Cup title in four years on Sunday, completing a shutout of a U.S. team playing without Venus and Serena Williams.

Flavia Pennetta beat U.S. Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin 7-5, 6-2 to give the experienced Italians an insurmountable 3-0 lead over a young United States team in the best-of-five series on an outdoor clay court at the Rocco Polimeni club.

Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci finished the 4-0 victory on Sunday by beating Liezel Huber and Vania King 4-6, 6-3, 11-9 in doubles. The fourth singles match was scrapped after Italy clinched the title.

The Williams sisters opted not to play after meeting in the season-ending tour championships final last weekend.

Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone also scored straight-set singles victories Saturday.

Italy beat France in the opening round and ousted defending champion Russia in the semifinals, but still faced questions about the value of its victory against a U.S. team without the Williams sisters.

“We’re the world champions, it’s simple,” Pennetta said. “We’ve played against some great teams this year.”

The U.S. has won a record 17 Fed Cups, but its last title came in 2000. Italy won its first Fed Cup title in 2006 over Belgium and Justine Henin, and lost the 2007 final to Russia.

The Italians celebrated their victory by launching captain Corrado Barazzutti up and down into the air, then ran around the court dousing each other with water bottles.

“These girls are incredible,” Barazzutti said. “They’ve written another chapter in Italian tennis history. I think they’re one of the best teams in the history of Italian sports — not many other teams have won two titles in four years.

“The first victory was extraordinary and this second one goes beyond expectations.”

The 11th-ranked Pennetta opened the series by beating 20-year-old Alexa Glatch and the 16th-ranked Schiavone made it 2-0 with a win over the 18-year-old Oudin.

Oudin said she let her team and country down by losing twice. But after scoring an important point against the Czech Republic in the semifinals and having the experience of playing No. 1 singles here, she also had something to be enthusiastic about for the future.

“I think this was a great experience for me,” Oudin said. “I’m going to look back on it and someday when I’m in a Fed Cup final again, hopefully I’ll be able to pull out the win. It will go my way instead of theirs next time.”

With threatening skies overhead and occasional rain falling, Pennetta overpowered Oudin at times, serving six aces and hitting 26 winners to Oudin’s 12.

“The serve is a shot that I’ve worked on for years and I think it has really improved these last two years,” Pennetta said.

Pennetta reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals the last two years, and the 27-year-old Italian used her experience to move Oudin out of her comfort zone, giving the American teenager less time to wind up her big forehand.

Oudin recovered from an early break in the first set but then hit her only double-fault of the match to give Pennetta a 6-5 lead. The Italian served out the set with poise, hitting a powerful first serve on set point that forced Oudin’s backhand return to land in the net.

Pennetta also jumped out to an early break in the second set, loading up for a blistering backhand cross-court winner to take a 2-1 lead, then cruised from there.

Still, the Italian had praise for Oudin, who also came through qualifying to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon before her run to the last eight at Flushing Meadows.

“She’s a good player and a real fighter,” Pennetta said. “She’s very young for what she has already accomplished. You have to play well to beat her; you can’t just go out on the court and win easily.”