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With some more big names crashing out of Wimbledon overnight, can Germany’s Sabine Lisicki continue her quest to win the 2014 Wimbledon crown?
Twelve months after famously capitulating in tears to the now-retired Marion Bartoli in her first Grand Slam championship match, the big-hitting German is now strongly positioned to repeat last year’s stunning run.
That run saw her take down three Grand Slam champions as well as one former Wimbledon finalist.
Lisicki advanced to the fourth round for the fifth consecutive time after defeating Ana Ivanovic in three sets.
The German took the first set 6-4 and it was 1-all early in the second set when play was first suspended late on Saturday night due to darkness.
After over an hour, while Ivanovic went on to take the second set 6-3, Lisicki completely dominated in the final set to move onto the fourth round, where she will next face Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova who advanced after Madison Keys could not resume their suspended match due to a left thigh injury.
For Ivanovic, yet another solid pre-Grand Slam build-up, in which she won her first grass court title in Birmingham last month, has gone to waste.
Her three-set loss marked her first such defeat at Wimbledon, having been 7-0 in matches that have gone the distance at the All England Club previously. Still, she remains the WTA’s pace-setter with a season-best 39 wins so far this year.
Lisicki’s victory gives her the honour of having defeated every single French Open champion at Wimbledon, having defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova, Li Na, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams in the years that they reigned at Roland Garros.
She had also defeated Francesca Schiavone, the 2010 champion, in the first round last year. Lisicki did not play Wimbledon that year due to a serious ankle injury which has proven to be a major turning point in her career.
The year Ivanovic reigned at Roland Garros was also the same year that Lisicki made her Wimbledon debut. On that occasion, she lost to Marion Bartoli in the first round. It would be the only time that Lisicki has failed to make the final eight at Wimbledon.
There is no doubt that Wimbledon brings out the best in the 24-year-old Lisicki, whose results at the other Grand Slams yield no quarter-finals.
Her best results at the Australian and US Opens include reaching the fourth round in 2012 and 2011 respectively, while she has only a third round last year to show for her efforts at the French Open.
At the Australian Open earlier this year, she lost a second Round 3-setter against Monica Niculescu, and was forced to retire with a wrist injury against compatriot Mona Barthel at Roland Garros, also in the second round.
Not surprisingly, the German has brought her best form to the All England Club and is now strongly poised to at least reach the last eight for the fifth time running, where Simona Halep, the recent French Open runner-up, will likely await.
The German leads her head-to-head against Shvedova 2-1, with their most recent meeting also coming at the All England Club, though that was during the London Olympics. On that occasion, Lisicki came from behind to win a tight three-setter.
The identity of Lisicki’s quarter-final opponent is still to be decided, with Simona Halep and Zarina Diyas to clash tonight (AEST). The match between Angelique Kerber and Maria Sharapova was also suspended and they will also face-off tonight.
Only one top half women’s fourth round clash was successfully completed, and it saw Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard edge out Alize Cornet, the third-round victor of Serena Williams, in a tight straight-setter.
Bouchard now awaits the winner of the aforementioned suspended tie between Kerber and Sharapova. The Canadian must reach the semi-finals if she is to enter the top ten for the first time in her career, displacing Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova.
Meanwhile, it is a Czech invasion in the bottom half of the draw with Lucie Safarova, Petra Kvitova and Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova all making the quarter-finals, with Kvitova advancing this far for the fifth consecutive year.
The 2011 champion, whose form has suffered in the three years following her stunning triumph at the All England Club, is strongly positioned to reach the final for a second time.
She faces fellow Czech Zahlavova-Strycova, the fourth-round victor of Caroline Wozniacki, in her quarter-final and leads 2-1 in head-to-head. The pair have split their last two meetings, both times at Indian Wells, with Zahlavova-Strycova winning in 2011 and Kvitova in 2012.
The odd one out is Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova, who dumped fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska out of the tournament with a 6-3, 6-0 thrashing in the fourth round. She next faces Safarova in the other bottom half quarter-final, with a new Grand Slam semi-finalist guaranteed.
With the number of upsets that have ravaged the All England Club, who is now your pick for the ladies’ title this year?
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