Flavia Pennetta has penned a memoirs entitled Straight to the Heart and she will hope she can land the killer blow against Angelique Kerber in tomorrow's semifinal of the ASB Classic in Auckland.
She couldn't do it at last year's US Open, when Kerber advanced past the Italian from their quarterfinal match-up, but Pennetta goes into the match after dismantling Russian Elena Vesnina 6-2 6-1 today.
Her memoirs, printed only in Italian, is said to be juicy in typically Italian style, with plenty about her previous relationship with former world No 1 Carlos Moya of Spain who cheated on her, but her tennis game is less flamboyant. She has few weaknesses which makes her extremely difficult to beat.
Today she was almost flawless as she romped through the match against Vesnina in only 67 minutes.
"It was easier than I thought it would be but I think I played really well today,'' the 2010 beaten finalist said. "I didn't make mistakes at all. I was serving so good. Everything was perfect. It was my day.''
She has had a few, winning nine singles and 14 doubles titles, including last year's Australian Open, and occupied a spot in the world's top 10 in 2009. She gives herself a chance by playing a host of tournaments and in 2010 was the most active player on the WTA Tour.
"I like to play singles and doubles,'' she said. "I don't like to withdraw from the tournament. I like to be on the court until the last point.
"Singles is more important but doubles over the last two years has also become important. I win so many good tournaments and I was No 1 in the world [in doubles] and no one from Italy was No 1 in tennis before. I like to play both in the same way, I like to play Fed Cup and play for my country. Normally I never say no to playing tennis.''
Top seed Sabine Lisicki said no when she withdrew from her match with fellow German Kerber complaining of an abdominal injury. She was trailing 6-4 4-3 (15-30) at the time and her normally powerful serve - she has recorded the fourth-fastest serve in women's tennis history - was well down.
She felt something twinge while serving in the warm-up and tried to continue but, with the year's first grand slam just 11 days away, was mindful of not aggravating it. It was a limp way for the world No 15 to depart Auckland after she also withdrew from the doubles yesterday because of cramp but she had not played particularly well all week.
"It hurt when I was serving,'' Lisicki said. "I think it was pretty obvious I couldn't serve from the first set on. I kept fighting. I tried it but, unfortunately, I couldn't finish.
"I did something similar a while back. I knew if I pushed it too much it will take two weeks to recover. I knew when to stop. It was painful and I didn't want to go over the edge.''
It was a strange way for Kerber to advance, particularly against a fellow German and one ranked higher than her and she admitted nerves started getting the better of her when Lisicki took an injury break early in the second set.
"It was mentally a tough game for me,'' she said. "The US Open gave me a lot of experience and confidence, but I know that Sabine is a good player. I knew the match would not be easy for me and after the first set I was nervous. I don't know why.''
She will need to control those nerves in her fourth WTA semifinal and will hope her power game will once again get her past the consistent Pennetta.
Unseeded Chinese player Jie Zheng easily beat Lucie Hradecka in her quarterfinal 6-2 6-3 and will play the winner of tonight's match between former world No 2 and third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and Sara Errani.
