Sabine Lisicki – the one to stop Serena Williams!

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Wilson Blade 9

Serena Williams has been the biggest challenge to beat for months and months and this week at Wimbledon she extended her career-best winning streak to 34 matches, but the end has come and it happened at the hands of Sabine Lisicki.

The German world No.24 has been a fan of grass surface and seeing her victorious in the fourth round of Wimbledon is no surprise, since she played the quarterfinals in 2012 and 2010 and the semifinals in 2011, but seeing her eliminate the mighty and unbeatable Serena has to be considered a shock. Actually, whoever beats Serena, even multiple Grand Slam winners, is bound to make headlines.

The 23-year-old Lisicki took the first set 6-2, with 15 winners to Williams’ 7 and 8 unforced errors to her opponent’s 12, and after fighting off all the four break points that Williams earned. Just as Lisicki comfortably started the second set by holding serve, Williams fired back, reduced her count of unforced errors to zero, won nine straight games, including 14 straight points at one time, and entered the deciding set with a 3-0 lead. Seed No.24 Lisicki maintained her aggression, big serves and powerful forehands, got to 4-all and eventually upset  the five-time Wimbledon champion and world No.1 6-2 1-6 6-4.

The draw that was stripped of big names already after Day 3 and now after losing the absolute favorite Serena in the beginning of the second week the draw cannot be more open. Lisicki’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be Kaia Kanepi, who eliminated home darling Laura Robson 7-6(6) 7-5. (photo: Moo’s Tennis Blog)

8 COMMENTS

  1. Wonderful victory for Sabine! My favorite to win this title is now Li Na, who would win Sabine in the semis and Sloane Stephens in the final. And Stephens would win Kvitova in the semis in the bottom half.

  2. If Lisicki plays her top game , the tournament is hers but it it is a big if and a big ask to produce a performance to follow that within twenty four hours.

    I do hope she does it because it is a joy to see a young player loving playing. So few of them now show enjoyment. As well as wanting Lisicki to win, it would be great to see two non grunters / screamers in the final.

    Credit to Serena for her graciousness on the court in defeat ; never completely forgiven her for lack of grace in 2011 US Final which detracted from Stosur’s moment of glory.

    Courageous fight from Laura Robson but better player won after Laura’s closing first set nerves. However, she will need to play much better against Lisicki.

  3. Good comment, Des Platt – quite a rarity hereabout, so I thought it should be acknowledged… Cheers.

  4. Well I’ve got my fingers crossed for Agnieszka now. I think she needs this win – it would give her a boost in many ways, not least of all by silencing the trolls giving her a hard time about her lack of Slams.

  5. Amazing match from Sabine yesterday, I was screaming at the end! I think it has made the womens draw much more interesting because all eight players left have a legitimate chance to win and they are all very competent players.

    I love Magic Monday, but there are so many matches that pass by. I think I will spend the quiet weeks after Wimbledon catching up on all the ones I missed!

  6. I wouldn’t mind seeing Bartoli win. It’s like her last chance to make it, IMO. She has always been such a fighter but came short in important moments.

  7. I think they should start giving the special reward for beating Serena 😀
    Des Platt, Serena had many worse, far worse moments that 2011 US Open final (like 2009 US Open final against Kim Clijsters when she went wild on the line judge), but I think that she changed very much after her health problems. The 2012/13 Serena seems way, way calmer, more composed and gracious than the past Serena. I recently heard one of the tennis commentators saying that it’s thanks to Mouratoglou, personnaly I’d say that she simply grown up and her almost dying experience played a role there.

    As for this Wimbledon – the tournament is crazy, but it’s also good to see someone else than Vika, Masha and Serena… I’m cheering for Aga (no surprise here 😉 and for Marion – maybe if she at least gets to the final some people in France will shut up about Marion weight, I’m sick of hearing it.

    And about Marion – did you guys know anything about her coach now? I thought that after some tries with different coaches she was back with Daddy Walter, but I’ve read today on one of the french websites that Marion was now training with Thomas Drouet and Amelie Mauresmo (it’s true that Amelie is always in Marion’s box, but I thought it was just the support, the same as she’s supporting all french girls since she became the team captain).

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