Sabine Lisicki‘s love affair with Wimbledon is growing stronger, as the German managed to with three straight matches for the first time this year, affected by injuries and illnesses, by beating in-form Ana Ivanovic in the third round of Wimbledon. The match turned out to be played in three parts – due to darkness and rain – and the nineteenth-seeded Lisicki dominated the first and the crucial third part, while seed No.11 Ivanovic prevailed in the second.
The stand-out encounter started on Saturday, but ended as the night tuned in, and last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Lisicki enjoyed the middle Sunday rest knowing that she was leading Ivanovic 6-4 1-1. When they resumed on Monday, it was Ivanovic who took charge and leveled to 1-1 in sets, even though rain interrupted play when she was just two points away from forcing a decider. Despite the morale-boosting second-set victory, Ivanovic was overwhelmed by Lisicki in the third set and the German won 6-4 3-6 6-1.
On average, Lisicki is reaching the third round of Grand Slams other than Wimbledon (actually, that average is even leaning towards the second round), but at Wimbledon she made at least the quarterfinals in her last four appearances. This time in the fourth round Lisicki will face Yaroslava Shvedova, who advanced when Madison Keys retired.
In other matches, as I previously reported, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova continued her upset run with a victory over seed No.16 Caroline Wozniacki to reach the quarterfinals, seed No.13 Eugenie Bouchard stopped seed No.25 Alize Cornet 7-6(5) 7-5, the conqueror of world No.1 Serena Williams, and advanced to her first Wimbledon quarterfinals, where she’ll try to make her third straight Grand Slam semis, and the 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova also progressed into the final eight, with a 6-3 6-2 win over Peng Shuai. (photo: Jimmie48)
