Wimbledon: Lisicki sets up challenging final with Bartoli

German player stuns fourth-seed Radwanska in thrilling semi.


Afp July 04, 2013
Lisicki held her nerve when it mattered, taking the match after two hours and 18 minutes with a booming forehand winner. PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON: Sabine Lisicki became the first German woman since 1999 to reach a Grand Slam final when she defeated Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 2-6, 9-7 yesterday in a thrilling Wimbledon semi-final.

The 23rd-seed Lisicki will face France’s 15th-seeded Marion Bartoli, the 2007 runner-up, in Saturday’s title match looking to become Germany’s first champion at a major since Steffi Graf beat Martina Hingis to claim the 1999 French Open.

Graf was also the last German to reach a final at a major when she was runner-up to Lindsay Davenport at Wimbledon that same year.

But 23-year-old Lisicki, the smiling darling of the All England Club crowd, did it the hard way.



She was a set and a break ahead before an astonishing collapse put her 3-0 down in the decider with errors flying off both sides.

But Lisicki, who put out five-time champion Serena Williams in the fourth round, mounted an astonishing and memorable fightback against a player who made the semi-final having spent three hours more on court.

She finished with nine aces and 60 winners which compensated for the 46 unforced errors she sent down, a worthwhile price for her all-out assault.

“It’s unbelievable. The last few games were so exciting. We were both fighting and it was a real battle,” said Lisicki, who had received a ‘good luck’ text from Graf ahead of the match. “Even when I was down 3-0 in the final set, I still believed that I could win, no matter what the score was.”

Bartoli registers comfortable win

The Frenchwoman stormed into her second Wimbledon final as the French 15th seed crushed Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 6-1, 6-2.

Bartoli was beaten by Venus Williams in her only previous Grand Slam final appearance at Wimbledon in 2007, but she finally has another chance to win a first major title after demolishing Flipkens in just 62 minutes on Centre Court.

“I just can’t believe it, I played so well today,” said Bartoli. “It feels so great. Kirsten had an amazing run and played some unbelievable matches. She was a bit injured today and that must be hard in the semi-finals of Wimbledon.”

She said she was playing better and better, having made the final without dropping a set.

Bartoli, tormented by injuries and illness in recent months, has enjoyed one of the best spells of her career over the last two weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5th, 2013.

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