SAN DIEGO (AP)—Flavia
sheepkin boots Pennetta routed 18-year-old CoCo Vandeweghe 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday to give Italy its second straight Fed Cup final victory over the United States. Pennetta’s victory in the fourth singles match gave the Italians a 3-1 decision in the best-of-five finale. Her victory came after Melanie Oudin stunned French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-1 to keep the United States alive. Pennetta won two matches during the weekend to carry the Italians. Vandeweghe, making her Fed Cup debut, lost twice. Italy beat the United States 4-0 last year. The Italians have won three titles in five years. This is the second straight final the U.S. has played without Venus and Serena Williams, who are out with injuries. With Billie Jean King watching from the front row, Pennetta won six straight games in the first set after Vandeweghe broke serve in the first game. In the epic second game, Vandeweghe took a 40-0 lead, helped by an ace on a second serve. But consecutive double faults let Pennetta back in. Seven deuces later, she broke Vandeweghe. On the second match point, Vandeweghe hit a backhand service return out. Pennetta raised her arms over her head, shook hands with Vandeweghe, then joined in a group hug with her teammates and captain Corrado Barazzutti In the first match, the 19-year-old Oudin dominated the 30-year-old Schiavone from midway through the first set to pull the United States to 2-1. Oudin said King came into the players’ lounge before the match, wished her luck and patted her on the back. “I heard her cheering,” Oudin said. “I was
sports jerseys playing for myself, the team and the whole U.S. Sometimes the Fed Cup can bring out the best in people and that’s what happened today. “Today is the best I’ve played in a long time. I felt confident out there.” Said Schiavone: “I feel sad for the team. It’s just one point and it’s not finished. “ Captain Mary Joe Fernandez substituted Oudin for the United States’ No. 1 player, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who cramped up in her loss to Pennetta on Saturday. Fernandez had made the bold move to name Vandeweghe as the Americans’ No. 2 player over Oudin, but Vandeweghe lost 6-2, 6-4 to Schiavone in the first match on Saturday. Oudin won the last three games of the first set, then won the first three games of the second set, the first two at love. After Schiavone held serve in the fourth game, Oudin closed it out by winning three straight games. She won match point on an ace, and the crowd roared when the official review showed it was just in. Starting with the final point of the first set, Oudin won 13 straight points before double-faulting at 40-0 in the third game of the second set. She held serve to take a 3-0 lead. Oudin set the tone in the second game of the first set when she broke Schiavone’s serve to take a 2-1 lead. Neither player held serve until Oudin did so in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead. When Schiavone hit a forehand out on
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Qantas chief executive Alan
air max Shoes Joyce says the airline's A380 fleet could be back in the air in the next 24 to 48 hours after safety checks are completed on the planes' engines. The airline grounded its six A380s yesterday after an engine exploded on a flight to Sydney shortly after take-off from Singapore. "We believe over the next 24 to 48 hours these checks will be complete on all the A380s," Mr Joyce said. "If we don't find any adverse findings out of the checks the aircraft will resume operations." Mr Joyce says teams of Qantas and Rolls-Royce engineers are working around the clock to determine what caused the explosion. "Qantas engineers with Airbus and Rolls Royce engineers have been working around the clock trying to identify what the potential root causes to the problem on QF32 [were]," he said. "We've agreed as a consequence of that work with Airbus and with Rolls-Royce a regime of checks that are going to take place on the engines. "Those checks will involve eight hours for each engine to be undertaken as part of the check regime that they're recommending." Mr Joyce says the number one engine on
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ATHENS - Greek terrorists are
NFL jerseys suspected of unleashing an unprecedented two-day wave of mail bombings targeting embassies in Athens, international organizations and foreign leaders, with devices exploding Tuesday at the Russian and Swiss embassies and German authorities destroying a bomb sent to Chancellor Angela Merkel. By Tuesday evening, at least 11 mail bombs had been detected in the Greek capital - one addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and eight to the embassies of Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia and Switzerland. Two more were destroyed in controlled explosions at the Athens airport - one addressed to the European Union's highest court, in Luxembourg, and the other to law enforcement agency Europol in the Netherlands. If it is confirmed that domestic Greek terrorist groups are responsible for the attacks, it would mark a dramatic escalation for organizations that have never attempted to strike targets abroad. Security at all embassies in Athens has been increased. The campaign used small devices that caused one injury and minimal damage. But it highlights the difficulty of keeping bombs out of the international delivery system - also a target of Yemen-based militants armed with more powerful explosives. It was unclear whether the bomb sent to
wholesale ugg boots Germany was delivered by land or air. If sent by air, it would highlight the potential limitations of air cargo security that remain, despite the concern triggered by the mail bombs dispatched recently from Yemen. "If they have been flown, then it rather begs the question whether European freight air security is up to muster at all," said Chris Yates, an aviation security consultant based in Britain. But transportation industry officials also said there are few if any security checks on packages transported within the European Union by road or rail. "Once they're in Europe, the goods are free to move around," said Robert Windsor, manager of trade services at the British International Freight Association.