Former US Open champion Flavia Pennetta selected as torchbearer for upcoming Winter Olympic Games
WTA
The XXV edition of the Winter Olympic Games will take place exactly two months from now, and host nation Italy has announced the names of the first torchbearers who will have the honor of transferring the Olympic flame from Rome to Milan.
The Olympic torch relay will feature 10,001 torchbearers, with the Olympic flame departing from Rome on December 6, 2025. The route will end at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, during the Opening Ceremony on February 6th, 2026.
Several well-known faces in the world of Italian sports and entertainment have been chosen to participate in the Olympic relay. Amongst them is former tennis star Flavia Pennetta, who enjoyed a successful career on the WTA tour before retiring in 2015.
The 43-year old shocked the tennis community when she won the US Open in 2015, defeating Grand Slam champions Sam Stosur, Petra Kvitova and second seed Simona Halep en route to the title. Pennetta would face compatriot Roberta Vinci in the final, scoring a straight sets victory over her childhood friend to win her only major title.
Numerous popular figures in Italian culture have also been selected
Pennetta will be joined by eclectic singer Achille Lauro and two-time MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia. Additionally, the father and son duo of Andrea and Franco Antonello, who have inspired thousands via their autism awareness, have also been chosen as torchbearers.
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Joining them are Dario Pivirotto, who was a torchbearer for the Cortina 1956 and Turin 2006 Olympic Games, and Lucia Tellone, a chef from Abruzzo who revived her town's community bakery, which had been closed for 35 years. In exactly one month, the identities of other torchbearers who will accompany the Olympic Flame for Italy will be revealed as the event draws nearer.
Pennetta announced her retirement after she won the 2015 US Open, stating the WTA Finals would be her final tournament. The former World No.6 would eventually tie the knot with compatriot and ATP star Fabio Fognini in 2016, with the two having three children soon afterwards.
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Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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