Flavia Pennetta is popular these days. She also has a secret.
"I don't have a motorbike because my dad doesn't want me to, but Francesca Schiavone has one—so nice!" she said, speaking of her Italian colleague on the WTA Tour. "I cannot tell my dad that I use the motorbike because he's going to kill me, but sometimes I use the motorbike."
After years of unremarkable results, the 27-year-old Pennetta is taking a few risks, living confidently, and enjoying the best season of her career. Earlier this summer, she accomplished what no Italian woman had before: She cracked the Top 10. The rankings breakthrough came a few weeks after she scored the biggest tournament win of her career in Los Angeles, where she beat Maria Sharapova in the semifinals. On Monday, Pennetta defeated Edina Gallovits, 6-0, 6-4 in the first round of the U.S. Open and then entertained far more media requests than she's used to receiving.
"It's good, it's good," she said of the buzz her recent play has generated. "I didn't go back home yet, but they tell me in Italy everybody is crazy about it."
It's a big change for a player who was taken to the hospital during her first junior tournament because she was so nervous she couldn't breathe. It's also a welcome change from the end of last season, when Pennetta learned how fleeting success can be.
In October, Federico Luzzi, an ATP pro from Italy and one of Pennetta's best friends, died of leukemia at age 28. Luzzi's playing career had been ended earlier in the year when he was suspended for 200 days and fined $50,000 for placing nearly 300 bets on tennis matches. (He was not accused of fixing matches, though he once bet $4.50 on himself to win.) Luzzi was working on a comeback last fall when he retired from an Italian league match with a fever. He saw a doctor and was told the following week that he had cancer; three days later, he was dead. Pennetta and Potito Starace, a pro who had lived with Luzzi, were devastated.
"I grew up with him," Pennetta said. "We didn't see each other so much because the tours are different, but he was the kind of person you see one time after three months and it's the same. It was very tough, something you cannot explain."
Pennetta has had sadness in her personal life as well. She had dated Carlos Moya, the former No. 1 and 1998 French Open champion, for several years, and says they were talking about marriage before Moya left her in 2007. She says she is single now, and happy about it.
"Everything happens for a reason," she said.
As she has moved up the rankings this year, Pennetta has kept Luzzi in her mind. She's not sure why she is having so much more success this season than previous years. Perhaps it's because her life no longer begins and ends with the sport. In fact, she's already looking forward to a life after tennis: First, a family, and then career helping to develop Italian players. And maybe her own motorbike, too.
Tom Perrotta is a senior editor at TENNIS. Follow him on Twitter.