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By Richard Pagliaro
(September 5, 2010) Francesca Schiavone dined on dirt in winning the French Open. She's throwing a pizza party at the US Open. Delivering an assortment of spins and speeds that left Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova famished for a flat shot in her strike zone, Schiavone flipped the bigger-hitting Russian right out of the field in a 6-3, 6-0 victory to vault into the US Open quarterfinals for the second time.
"I think today was not easy, and with wind how you can see every shots are different," Schiavone said. "For me, it's better because I have spin, and Pavlyuchenkova couldn't play so good her backhand. So I tried to play at the best with my rotation than other things. It was just focus."
It was three months ago today that the 17th-seeded Schiavone became the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam championship, surprising Samantha Stosur, 6-4, 7-6(2), in the French Open final in a match of first-time finalists. In the aftermath of that moment, Schiavone spent a moment in a lip-locked exchange with the terre battue.
New York City is the pizza capital of the country (real pizza, not the lasagna masquerading as "deep dish" pizza they try to sell you in Chicago) and Schiavone, who has dined in Little Italy in lower Manhattan this week, has applied the pizza maker approach in translating her game from the slower red clay to the faster blue Deco Turf — she applied her vast variety in a masterful mix in wrapping up a 68-minute win.
"For sure on the clay I have more time, so I can take you and go 10 shots, 20 shots, 30 shots. Here is not like this," Schiavone said. "But in the same way, I can do serve and volley, I can play faster, I can play slow and back. Is a mix. It's like Capricciosa pizza. I don't give you margherita, I give you Capricciosa, different kind of ingredient."
Can she keep cooking against Venus Williams in the quarters?
Venus has chewed up Schiavone in treating her as little more than an appetizer in producing a 7-0 record in their head-to-head series, winning 14 of the 17 sets they've played. It's an intriguing match-up between two 30-year-olds with completely different styles pitting Williams' power and flat strokes against Schiavone's varied spins.
"We've had some tough matches. She's definitely had some opportunities to win against me," Williams said. "Obviously, her game is better than ever now. Seems like everybody is hitting their stride at 30. It's the new 20. Definitely two of us going after it and trying to take that spot in the semifinals. But I'm hoping my experience will help me, just like it did today where I've had my opponent in some tough situations and still able to win."
While Venus looked vulnerable at times today, she put her foot down when necessary.
The third-seeded Williams extended her career edge over Shahar Peer to 6-0 with a hard-fought 7-6(3), 6-3 victory in reaching her 10th US Open quarterfinal and her third major quarter of the season.
The 16th-seeded Peer denied five set points in the 12th game and finally ended a 22-point battled with a forehand winner down the line to force the breaker. But Williams began to step inside the court more often in the breaker, using a 103 mph ace, a forehand winner down the line and a whipping forehand to seal the set.
The two-time US Open champion served just 48 percent but won 20 of 26 trips to the net. The 6-foot-1 Venus stands nearly eight inches taller than the diminutive Schiavone and has overpowered the Italian in baseline exchanges. Schiavone will likely try to compensate for the size and strength disadvantage by using her quickness and all-court acumen to attack net as she did in the French Open final.
"She definitely puts a lot of spin on the ball," Williams said of Schiavone. "Most of the top players, most of us hit it flat and through it. It is a different game and she uses that really effectively."
She was dishing out a tactical tennis pizza plan today and Schiavone says she hasn't nearly had her full of winning major titles.
"When you win one, you can say, I want another one, as many as you can," Schiavone said. "You are hungry, of course, but you have to respect, because to win a Grand Slam is something so big, so long, so tough that it's absolutely so far away from the moment."