Sabine Lisicki loves Wimbledon, she's played her one and only Grand Slam semifinal there last year, and this time she's again making her mark on grass by upsetting top seed Maria Sharapova in the fourth round 6-4 6-3. Actually, it was Sharapova who prevented Lisicki from reaching the final last time and now the German has not only avenged the loss, but also earned her first victory over the Russian. Moreover, not only is Sharapova a world No.1, she's the 2004 Wimbledon champion and the reigning Roland Garros titlist. Lisicki outplayed her and scored her third win over a Roland Garros champion at Wimbledon.

Kim Clijsters was playing her last Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam at which she has failed to reach the final, and her conqueror was Angelique Kerber, the sole Top 10 player whom she had never faced before. The eighth-seeded Kerber, the WTA leader for match wins this year, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1 6-1 victory.

Some experts favored seed No.14 Ana Ivanovic in the encounter with second seed Victoria Azarenka, but that was far from the outcome of this fourth-round clash as Ivanovic was destroyed 6-1 6-0. Since her 2008 Roland Garros triumph, Ivanovic hasn't reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal, and she played all the 16 Grand Slam events!

There was no upset in the match between Serena Williams and the golden-set Yaroslava Shvedova, although the Kazakh did give a stiff challenge before losing 6-1 2-6 7-5. Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska beat Camila Giorgi, who recorded her first two Top 20 wins during this Wimbledon, 6-2 6-3, while defending champion Petra Kvitova took out Francesca Schiavone 4-6 7-5 6-1.

So let's see who the quarterfinal pairs are (seedings are in brackets): Sabine Lisicki (15) vs. Angelique Kerber (8), Agnieszka Radwanska (3) vs. Maria Kirilenko (17), Serena Williams (6) vs. Petra Kvitova (4), Tamira Paszek vs. Victoria Azarenka (2). As you can notice, the resurgent Paszek is the only unseeded player in the quarters. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Fifth seed Samantha Stosur lost in the second round of Wimbledon on Day 3, becoming the highest-seeded WTA loser of the tournament so far. But judging from the previous 44 years, the upset fever should not infect the Top 4 seeds soon. Women's Tennis Blog's contributor Omair went through the history of Wimbledon and realized that in the entire Open Era only once did all the Top 4 seeds lose before the semifinals.

I was looking for something particular, but I ended up finding facts revealing that since the beginning of the Open Era it has happened only once that all the Top 4 Wimbledon seeds fell before the semifinal stage of the tournament. Surprising! Isn't it? If you go to the ATP Tour, it has happened twice there.

WHICH YEAR WAS THE WEAKEST YEAR FOR THE TOP 4 SEEDS AT WIMBLEDON? 2008!

2008 – very recent past! Yes, the year Justine Henin retired for the first time, the year Ana Ivanovic won her first Grand Slam and the year Sharapova suffered from her shoulder injury.

Let's have a look at the results of the Top 4 seeds at Wimbledon 2008. The Top 4 seeds were: Ana Ivanovic (1), Jelena Jankovic (2), Maria Sharapova (3) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (4).

ANA IVANOVIC

Ivanovic got the top spot courtsey of her first (and to date only) Grand Slam, the French Open title, but she could not sustain the form that took her to the trophy. She won the routine first round at Wimbledon, but needed three sets to overcome Nathalie Dechy in the second round, where she saved match points in the second set before winning the match 6-7(2) 7-6(3) 10-8. The win over Dechy squeezed the energy out of Ivanovic and she went down meekly in her third-round encounter at the hands of Chinese wild card Zheng Jie. Ivanovic became the first top seed in nine years to fall before the quarterfinal stage of Wimbledon.

JELENA JANKOVIC

Jankovic was the second seed and a condenter for the No.1 ranking. She could have overtaken the No.1 spot, had she made the semifinals of Wimbledon 2008. Jankovic won her first two matches easily, but in the third round against Caroline Wozniacki, future No.1, she injured her knee. She went on to win the match in three sets, but went down in straight sets in the fourth round against Tamarine Tanasugarn. Read more »

After the expiration of her contract with Sony Ericsson, Maria Sharapova became the face of Samsung on April 1, 2012, and now the newly-crowned French Open champion is all smiles with her Samsung mobile phones in advertisements aimed at the Russian market.

Sharapova is always a perfect choice as a brand representative, and now that she's completed a career Grand Slam, returned to No.1 in the WTA rankings and will be the Russian flag-bearer at the London Olympics she's an even hotter endorser. Read more »

Women's Tennis Blog's contributor Omair is known for his statistical approach to tennis, but now he's summing up the claycourt season, awarding the WTA players titles based on their performance at Roland Garros 2012. Do you agree with Omair's titles? Feel free to comment!

Maria Sharapova – CLAY QUEEN

Having won Stuttgart and Rome, Sharapova was 11-1 on clay coming into the French Open, and she made it 18-1, her lone loss coming at the hands of Serena Williams on the blue clay of Madrid.

Sara Errani – CINDERELLA

Although Errani was the claycourt wins leader entering the French Open, she had never been beyond the second round of the tournament in her last four attempts, had been past the third round of a Grand Slam only once in the last eighteen majors (quarterfinals at this year's Australian Open) and was 0-28 against Top 10 players. It all changed at this year's Franch Open, she not only reached her first Grand Slam final, but in doing so recorded her first two victories over Top 10 players. Although she fell short to Sharapova in the final, she had a great run to the championship match.

Samantha Stosur – UNDERACHIEVER

Stosur's game is best suited to clay and she is a great claycourt player as is evidenced by her record at Roland Garros – she has been to the semifinals or better for three of the past four years, including this year's semifinal. She is one of the fittest athletes on the Tour at the moment, and with her game she no doubt was an underachiever. Read more »

Our stats contributor Omair analysed the women's tennis French Open final between Maria Sharapova and Sara Errani before the match and now he's back with a post-match analysis. As you'll see, Omair's predictions translated into the final!

Maria Sharapova walked onto the court with the determined and focused look on her face, or it would be more appropriate to say the look of a champion. History was calling, and Sharapova was responding, screaming at every point, fist pumping on winning them, striking the ball cleanly and with supreme authority. Sara Errani, on the other hand, seemed nervous when she walked on to the court, which showed in her opening games as well.

Sharapova had two straight-set losses in her last two major final appearances, at Wimbledon last year at the hands of Petra Kvitova, and at Australian Open this year at the hands of Victoria Azarenka, both of whom were first-time Grand Slam finalists. Sharapova made it third time lucky, with history on the line, she was not to be denied by yet another first-time finalist.

Errani was in a dream of her own, having recorded her first wins over Ana Ivanovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Angelique Kerber and Sam Stosur, and to add to that having recorded her first ever Top 10 win (in the quarterfinals over Kerber) in 29 tries, and backing it up with another Top 10 win in the semis (against Stosur), making it her first Slam semifinal and then final. She was hoping to complete her dream run by laying her hands on the coveted trophy, however, her opponent had other plans for her.

Sharapova started the match brilliantly, and helped by Errani's nervousness raced out to 4-0, before Errani got herself together to break Sharapova at love and hold her own serve to close the gap to 4-2. Sharapova held her nerve and serve to go up 5-2. Errani saved two set points in her service game before holding to force Sharapova to serve for the set, and serve she did taking the first set 6-3. Second set started in almost identical fashion with Sharapova building a 4-1 lead before Errani broke back to make it 4-2, but Sharapova responded likewise breaking her opponent at 15 to give herself a chance for the championship. The final game was indeed the best one, with Errani saving two match points, one courtesy of Sharapova's long forehand and the other with a perfect drop shot, and Sharapova saving a break point with an incredible cross-court backhand. Sharapova made it third time lucky, and completed her coveted career slam when a backhand from Errani landed into the net.

SARA ERRANI STATS

Errani's serve has never been a force, and with a returner as great as Sharapova, Errani was bound to pay for it. As I had mentioned in the preview that Sharapova would punish Errani's both first and second serve, Sharapova did just that, as is evident from the stats, Errani's first serve winning percentage fell by 15% in comparison to the average of her previous six matches.

MARIA SHARAPOVA STATS Read more »