A look back at the most inspiring tennis victories of recent times on the WTA Tour
The WTA Tour is the worldwide professional tennis circuit for women governed by the Women’s Tennis Association, the principal organising body of women’s professional tennis. The organisation was established in 1973, and by 1980, over 250 women were playing professionally. The same year, an unprecedented total of $7.2 million prize money was offered by the tour. In 2013, Serena Williams alone went over the $12 million mark with total earnings of $12,385,572 in a single year.
The most popular wins at the tour often come from the well-known names from the game of tennis, with the likes of Williams, Maria Sharapova, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, among others gathering headlines.
However, the most enthralling of the wins are at times achieved by the most underrated players on tour. Here’s a recap of some of the most emotional and inspiring victories in recent memory on the WTA tour.
#7 Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci: 2015 US Open finalists
Italian trailblazers Roberta Vinci and Flavia Pennetta clashed in the finals of the 2015 US Open. The latter came through as one of the most surprising — and popular — champions in US Open history, only to announce her retirement post the tournament.
However, the story of the championships was the duo’s route to the unlikeliest of finals;.Pennetta took out some tough opponents in form of the fourth and second seeds Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep, respectively. Vinci went on to pull an absolute stunner against the top seed and 21 time Grand Slam Champion, Serena Williams.
The veterans shared some heartwarming moments at the post-match presentation ceremony. Towards the end of her speech, Pennetta announced her retirement after the emotional victory, “There’s one more thing I’d like to say – it’s the way I would like to say goodbye to tennis.” The match went down as a historic day not only in Italian tennis history but women’s tennis itself.