Marching on!
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 on Thursday in a thrilling Wimbledon semifinal.
The 24th 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 0-3 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.’
Marion Bartoli stormed into her second Wimbledon final as the French 15th seed crushed Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 6-1, 6-2 on Thursday. 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.’
