Congratulazione I’ltalia! Francesca Schiavone, is the first professional tennis player from her country to win one of the four grand slam championships.

She fell to the red clay, then climbed into the stands to hug fans wearing tee-shirts proclaiming in English, “Schiavo: Nothing is Impossible”, She defeated Samantha Stosur in two sets, 6-4, 7-6(2).

Both competitors are veterans of at least ten years on the professional tour and reached the peak at the same tournament.

Stosur had vanquished both Justine Henin and Serena Williams to reach Saturday’s final match. Schiavone had to get past Na Li the 11th seed and one of the favorites to win, third seed, Caroline Wozniacki.

Stosur had a tough time handling the power of her opponent’s ground strokes as the match wore on. The Italian’s serves did not break down, even in the tie-break when it was clear both women were fatigued.

Schiavone proclaimed at the trophy ceremony:

“I prepared nothing to say now. If I did, I don’t think anything like this would happen.”

She then went on to prove that she didn’t need to worry about preparation, the words flowed in English and Italian.

John McEnroe declared on the television broadcast that the victory for Schiavone might help boost the efforts of the tennis organizations in that country. The Italians love tennis and have not been able to produce a major champion…until today.

As the World Cup is about to begin, the defending champion, Italy has a new prize to celebrate and Francesca Schiavone will forever be introduced as the woman’s champion of the 2010 French Open.

The men’s championship final will be played on Sunday featuring Rafael Nadal vs. Robin Sodeling.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

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