US Open - Pennetta holds nerve despite rain delay

Pennetta completed a 6-2 7-6(3) win over Romania's Simona Halep but it was anything but a routine straight-sets victory.

After winning the opening set and building a 4-2 lead in the second, Pennetta suddenly lost her way as the hard-hitting Halep began to find her rhythm.

The Romanian, one of the hottest players on tour after capturing four WTA titles since June, reeled off the next three games in a row.

Then she reached set point on her own serve before play was suspended because of a thunderstorm.

The match did not resume for nearly five hours but when it did, the unseeded Pennetta burst out of the blocks quicker at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

The 31-year-old successfully saved the set point and broke Halep's serve to level the score at 5-5. And although she lost her own service game to fall behind again, she immediately broke Halep for a second time then won the tiebreaker.

"Today was a really tough match for me," said Pennetta. "It was tough to come back after so many hours.

"Waiting all day...then starting a game, it's not easy to focus."

Pennetta has never made it past the fourth round at any of the other grand slam but has flourished on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts, reaching the quarter-finals in the Big Apple in 2008, 2009, 2011 and now this year.

"New York is New York guys, " she said in a courtside interview. "I love it."

Pennetta faces a tough challenge because her next opponent, fellow Italian Roberta Vinci, is one of her closest friends.

"It's going to be really bad for both us, it's not easy to play with your friend," said Pennetta.

"It's strange because I grew up with Roberta and we've known each other since we were eight-years-old.

"We know each other really well...20 years or more, because we live almost in the same place, just 35, 45 kilometers."

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Wimbledon - Judy Murray fears for British tennis despite Andy's triumph

Andy ended a 77-year wait for a British men’s champion at SW19 on Sunday against Novak Djokovic and celebrated with a kiss for his mum.

However Judy, who is coach of the British Fed Cup team, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that she fears the wave of optimism will break under a lack of facilities at grassroots level.

"The country will go tennis crazy. Kids and adults will want to try tennis and not all of them will get the opportunity," she said.

"The key is to make sure there are as many public courts in as many communities we can put them in if we're going to tap into this great imagination…

"I'd like it to become way more inclusive. I think it still is [too elitist]. Some moves have been made to make things better but there's still such a long way to go and there are huge swathes of the country where you can't find tennis courts.

"You need to build courts in areas where they currently don't exist for it to become a much more inclusive sport…

"We need to get into rural areas and disadvantaged areas and get tennis to people that haven't had the opportunity to play.”

However Tom Gibbins, head of education at the Lawn Tennis Association, refuted the notion that tennis is inaccessible.

"We're trying to dispel lots of myths about tennis and one is that it has to be an expensive sport to play. The average weekly membership of a tennis club is less than £1.50 a week for a junior to play,” he told BBC London.

"Andy gave British tennis its greatest moment ever and it's our job to capitalise on that interest and inspire more kids and adults to play tennis.

"There are 20,000 tennis courts up and down the country, 1,500 of which are free. Tennis isn't an expensive sport especially at beginner and recreational level."

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