TENNIS:SABINE LISICKI will spend the next 12 months wondering how on earth she failed to become the first wild-card entry to reach the women's singles final in the history of the Wimbledon championships, after losing yesterday to an opponent who managed to compile no fewer than 13 double faults in nine service games, three of them at break point.
The answer, which may be of some comfort to the 21-year-old German as she looks back on her 6-4, 6-3 defeat, is that Maria Sharapova dredged up every ounce of her once-familiar competitive ferocity in order to overcome what should have been a crippling self-imposed handicap. Seven years after winning the tournament at the age of 17, the number five seed has the experience and a steel-tipped focus that enabled her to think straight past her own errors and earn a place against the Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova in tomorrow’s final. “I did some other things right,” she said afterwards.
In a tight spot against Lisicki after the opening games, she demonstrated that little has changed with the passing years, at least in that important respect. Yet when Lisicki found herself 3-0 up in the first set, at a cost of only two points, she must have thought the whole business of reaching the final – even against a former champion – was a ridiculously easy affair.
“She started really well,” Sharapova said. “The first three games she played very well, and I did quite the opposite. And then, you know, I told myself to take it one point at a time and really focus.”
In the next game Lisicki had three opportunities for a second break, but failed to take advantage as her opponent began to find her range and exert pressure in the rallies.
Sharapova had conceded her first service game with a double fault, and soon Lisicki’s own serve – one of the most dangerous on the women’s tour – was starting to let her down. The high kick of her second delivery is a useful weapon, but the 6ft 2in creature on the other side of the net was able to get on top of it and send it back with interest. She was also setting up rallies in which her scorching drives pulled the world number 62 from one side of the baseline to the other, provoking the first trickle of what became a steady stream of errors.
Lisicki’s fondness for using her own powerful drives to set up a drop shot bore occasional fruit but the tactic quickly became predictable against an opponent whose hungry anticipation and long stride usually enabled her to reach the forecourt in time to nullify the threat. Nevertheless the two were starting to put together a series of intriguing rallies based on the German player’s attempt to fight fire with fire.
The match had begun in sunlight, but now the skies were darkening. When a few drops of rain fell early in the second set, with Sharapova already 2-0 up, Lisicki twice interrupted play to plead for a stoppage. No luck there, and no mercy. A screaming Russian forehand and a couple of banal mistakes later, she was 3-0 down.
At that point she began to find some answers. She took Sharapova’s serve in the next game, forfeited her own again only after saving three break points, came close to another break in a game of four deuces with her best shots of the match, a couple of scorching cross-court backhands, and achieved a second break in the eighth game, thanks to her opponent’s 13th double fault, once again perpetrated at the decisive moment.
By this time Sharapova was clearly never going to win the match via her own serve, so it was no surprise when she exploited Lisicki’s errors in the ninth game to secure her return to the final for the first time since her victory as a teenager. “It’s been many years,” she said, “but it’s a great feeling.”
Kvitova became the first left-handed player to reach a Wimbledon ladies’ singles final since her compatriot and idol Martina Navratilova in 1994, by defeating Victoria Azarenka. The Czech’s 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 victory secured a place in her first grand slam final.
Long blonde curls floating down past her shoulders, Kvitova giggled like a schoolgirl as she discussed her win. “She’s won here already, so she knows how it is going into the final at Wimbledon,” said Kvitova of Sharapova, the 2004 champion. “She has an advantage with this. But we played already and I lost, so now I just have to beat her.”
Guardian Service
