TENNIS WIMBLEDON 2014 – There seems to be an urban legend of sorts on the women’s tour in recent years regarding Sabine Lisicki. It appears as though the current French Open champion always end up meeting Lisicki at Wimbledon and each time the German comes away with the upset win. She beat Li Na in 2011, Maria Sharapova in 2012 and last year Serena Williams. Cordell Hackshaw
Results, Order of Play, Draws and Interviews from The Championships
There seems to be an urban legend of sorts on the women’s tour in recent years regarding Sabine Lisicki (19). It appears as though the current French Open champion always end up meeting Lisicki at Wimbledon and each time the German comes away with the upset win. She beat Li Na in 2011, Maria Sharapova in 2012 and last year Serena Williams. However, it seems as though this “curse” does not only apply to current champions but also former ones too. Lisicki defeated former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic (11) in 3-sets upon resumption of their 3rd round match which was suspended last Saturday. Lisicki already up a set on Saturday before poor lighting suspended the action, won 6-4 3-6 6-1.
From the onset of the match, Lisicki was the one looking very aggressive and overflowing with confidence. Since given the honour of playing the first women’s singles match on Centre Court in the absence of Marion Bartoli, reigning champion, a smile has been permanent etched upon Lisicki’s face. They traded breaks early in the set but Lisicki was the first to consolidate for a 4-2 lead. Ivanovic did well to hold serve and made valiant attempts to break Lisicki again in the set. However, Lisicki showed nerves of steel to serve out the set 6-4 in 46 minutes. Ivanovic made a near protest at this point to end play as she put on her jacket and asked that play be suspended but the tournament officials urged that play go on. After almost 10 minutes of discussion, they played two more games for 1-1 in the 2nd set.
On resumption of play on Monday, Ivanovic came out firing from the get-go taking a 3-1 lead but Lisicki would break back. Ivanovic would not be deterred as she broke Lisicki again to go up 5-2. They were in the 8th game on Lisicki’s serve, at deuce when play was again disrupted; this time by rain. They continued the match some time later and Lisicki quickly held serve as did Ivanovic was she took the set 6-3. One would have expected a battle in the 3rd set but there would be none. Ivanovic somewhat capitulated the match at this point or perhaps could not deal with the second interruption of play. She no longer had the fighting spirit which was so visible in the first two sets of the match. “I think we had it all: dark, rain, and everything. But I really started well this morning first up, and then the break didn’t really do well with my game and where I was at,” Ivanovic later stated. Lisicki broke immediately and got off to a 3-0 lead. She would break the Serbian again in the 6th game to serve for the match at 5-1. Lisicki for her part, remained aggressive on serve as she closed out the match at love with double aces, 6-4 3-6 6-1.
Regarding her 3rd set domination, Lisicki noted “I think I was very focused in the third set using my chances and serving very well.” Lisicki would end the match with 7 aces and 7 double faults compared to Ivanovic with 3 aces and 4 double faults. Their serving statics were similar overall but in the decisive set, Lisicki won 93% of her 1st serve points whereas Ivanovic only won 50% of hers. Ivanovic was trying to be aggressive by coming to net but she was only winning half of those points 16/30. Lisicki preferred to dictate play from the baseline as she won only 9/13 points at the net. Lisicki is all about going for winners and she did with 40 winners and 21 errors total in the match. Ivanovic only had 24 winners and 20 errors. Lisicki will now face, Yaroslava Shvedova for a place in the quarterfinals. Interestingly enough, Lisicki is in the same half as current French Open champion, Sharapova and could meet her in the semifinals if they both progress to that stage.
