Flavia Pennetta tops Roberta Vinci to win US Open, retires from tennis

World No. 26 Flavia Pennetta capped one of the most improbable Grand Slam runs in history Saturday with a US Open championship acceptance speech that doubled as a retirement speech.

After defeating her Italian countrywoman Roberta Vinci 7-6(4), 6-2 in a lively, entertaining match on Arthur Ashe, Pennetta, hoisting the first major trophy of her career, announced that it would be her last.

"This is the way I would like to say goodbye to tennis," she said, teary-eyed, adding that it was a decision she made some time ago. In press before playing the final, she admitted she's considered the possibility every year since undergoing wrist surgery in 2012.

Like Marion Bartoli after winning Wimbledon in 2013, she's leaving on the highest of highs. At 33, playing in her 49th major, Pennetta is the oldest first-time Slam champion in the Open era (she was the oldest even to play in a Slam final for the first time). And it couldn't have come from much further out of left field.

She'd been mired in a mediocre season before the tournament began, having won just two matches in five previous tournaments dating all the way back to the French Open. On her way to the title, she had to beat 2011 champ Sam Stosur, world No. 5 Petra Kvitova, world No. 2 Simona Halep, and, finally, Vinci, a longtime friend who was coming off one of the greatest upsets the sport has ever seen.

Her confidence only seemed to swell the further along she got. Her semifinal thrashing of Halep was a master class in smart, attacking tennis; a hail of unrelenting artillery fire balanced with rock-solid defense. Against Vinci, she was a bit nervier, a bit more wobbly, a bit more affected by the moment. But she always hit bravely when she needed to.

After surrendering a break and allowing Vinci to take things to a tiebreaker in the first set, Pennetta locked in, started painting the lines with searing backhands, and closed the set with two big, unreturned serves. Emboldened, she raced to a 4-0 lead in the second - a set in which she made just three unforced errors - and survived an urgent, last-ditch push from Vinci to close things out.

Vinci, whose unique style of play and infectious personality made her the sentimental star of the tournament, could have hung her head and wallowed in disappointment. To score the biggest win of her life only to come away empty-handed could have felt ... well, empty. But she never let her head drop, never stopped smiling, and was nothing but gracious in defeat. After match point, the two shared a touching moment at the net ...

... and continued to yuk it up thereafter.

It's hard to think of a more fitting end to a career: Sharing the court with a friend and compatriot, on the sport's biggest stage, in a moment neither ever imagined they'd experience.

It's also hard to imagine someone walking away from a sport immediately after playing it as well as she ever has. Flavia Pennetta is doing just that.

She gets to walk away secure in the knowledge that she's a Grand Slam champion.