Nike has officially become the clothing sponsor of Sabine Lisicki. The German used to wear Adidas, but they decided not to renew the contract (possibly because of her long absence due to an ankle injury).

Nike broke the news on Facebook:

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Top seed Vera Zvonareva advanced to the quarterfinals of the Mercury Insurance Open, as did all the other seeded players in action on Thursday.

The world No.3 surged from a 2-3 deficit in the first set and won ten straight games to defeat Vera Dushevina 6-3 6-0. Zvonareva considers every opponent a challenge, but her next one is especially so. In the quarterfinals Zvonareva will play Sabine Lisicki, who has won 17 of her last 19 matches – the German played the semifinals of Stanford and Wimbledon, and won the title in Birmingham. Zvonareva leads their head-to-head 2-0. And one more thing when we're talking about Lisicki, if you haven't read it yet, do check out our recent in-depth analysis of the German's game.

Quarterfinal pairs (seedings in brackets): Vera Zvonareva (1) vs. Sabine Lisicki (12), Peng Shuai (4) vs. Ana Ivanovic (5), Daniela Hantuchova (8) vs. Agnieszka Radwanska (3), Sloane Stephens vs. Andrea Petkovic (2). (photo: sr_cranks)

Recently I met Florian Meier, who is coaching an up-and-coming women's tennis player and is running OnlineTennisInstruction.com. The especially interesting part of his website are detailed analyses of many professional tennis players' games. He wanted to share with the readers of Women's Tennis Blog his analysis of how Sabine Lisicki plays, what are the positive and negative sides of her tennis. The 26th-ranked German had a very successful month of June with the title in Birmingham and semifinals of Wimbledon.

GAME ANALYSIS

Sabine Lisicki’s game is all about power tennis. She is definitely one of the hardest hitters on the women’s tour and I believe she has a big future inside the Top 10 ahead of her.

SABINE LISICKI: POWERTENNIS AT ITS BEST

Let’s break down her game in detail.

TECHNICAL

A big reason for Lisicki’s incredible power is that she has great stroke mechanics.

FOREHAND

Sabine has a very strong forehand. She can hit winners from anywhere on the court with this shot and also mixes in some nice angles occasionally. Read more »

Dominika Cibulkova hit just two winners in the first set and one in the second as Maria Sharapova stormed past her in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, 6-1 6-1. Sharapova scored 23 winners in the one-hour match.

In the previous round Cibulkova upset world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and in that encounter she was first behind 1-6! Sharapova, though, didn’t give Cibulkova any chance of a comeback.

Sabine Lisicki will be Sharapova’s opponent in the semis. The German wildcard had a much more difficult time in her quarterfinal against Marion Bartoli but she won it 6-4 6-7(4) 6-1. Both Lisicki and Bartoli won a tournament on grass in the lead-up to Wimbledon – Lisicki won Birmingham, Bartoli won Eastbourne.

Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004, but hasn't played the semis since 2006. Lisicki played the quarterfinals of Wimbledon two years ago, but this is the first time she is in the semifinals of a Grand Slam. (photos: Ralf Reinecke, © Neal Trousdale)

German world No.100 Sabine Lisicki defeated Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova in a rain-delayed final of the AEGON Classic in Birmingham and collected her second WTA title.

En route to the Birmingham trophy, the unseeded Lisicki defeated Kimiko Date-Krumm (62) in the first round, Kirsten Flipkens (111) in the second, Tamira Paszek (80) in the third, Magdalena Rybarikova (69) in the quarters, Peng Shuai (20) in the semis and finally Daniela Hantuchova (28). As you can see, only one Lisicki's opponent was ranked lower than her. However, it is not really surprising that Lisicki managed to defeat them, as she was ranked No.22 in 2009, prior to her health problems. Read more »

Germany’s Sabine Lisicki beat fifth seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-4 in the final of the Family Circle Cup to claim her first career WTA title and cap the most unlikely run in the tournament history.

Lisicki, seeded 16th, won the title being ranked 63rd, and became the lowest-ranked player ever to win the Family Circle Cup. The 19-year-old Lisicki has climbed to No.43 after the victory.

Prior to upsetting No.2 seed Venus Williams in the third round and eventually winning the tournament in Charleston, Lisicki had been known for defeating Lindsay Davenport in the Fed Cup. (photo via Family Circle Cup)