Sabine Lisicki surprises in Birmingham, beats Hantuchova for the title

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Wilson Blade 9

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.

In today’s final against Hantuchova, Lisicki hit eight aces to Hantuchova’s single ace, and allowed Hantuchova only one break point opportunity which the Slovak didn’t convert. Final score: 6-3 6-2.

It’s a very nice introduction to the grass-court season to Lisicki, whose only Grand Slam quarterfinal was at Wimbledon 2009. Her following season was marred by a left ankle injury – she skipped Wimbledon, as well as many other events, including her title defense at Charleston. This year Lisicki has received a wildcard into the main draw of Wimbledon.

8 COMMENTS

  1. It’s absolutely fantastic to see her winning, after the injury problems she’s had over the last couple of years she deserves it :DD

    And how can you not love someone who’s so happy and smiley most of the time? 😀

  2. Haha!!! The third german tournament-win this season! I am so happy for Sabine. From this moment on the whole tennis-world HAVE to be crazy about the germans. It isn’t a secret anymore we have lots of potential. Maybe the moment isn’t far away we have three germans in the Top-Ten. Go Sabine! Go Julia! Go Petko!

  3. in the doubles bit, some of the players couldn’t wait until monday, so they played a grass title on a hardcourt.

  4. Pinky,

    I talked to Alla today in the Netherlands. Olga had to forfeit out of the singles qualifier here because she could not play here on Sunday. Olga and Alla would have forfeited doubles and Alla singles if they hadn’t showed up in the Netherlands on Monday. Winning the double’s tournament isn’t supposed to cost players money in their next event.

  5. Well done Sabine. It is good to see the German players starting to do well on the WTA tour once again. It is 12 years since Steffi retired.

  6. It’s really good to see Sabine win this tourny. Those of us who watched her painful loss to Vera in RG’s R2 had to feel empathy for the poor girl as after the match was over she layed on the sidelines sobbing until a stretcher was brought out to carry her off court.

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