- Serena, the reigning champion and winner of the French Open, has looked untouchable since the start of the tournament, and was...
unbeaten in 34 matches going into the last-16 clash.
But Lisicki, the 23rd seed with a strong record at Wimbledon in recent years, paid no heed to the form book and raced through the first set 6-2.
The champion roared back, levelling the match with a nine-game winning streak and taking an immediate break in the deciding set.
But once again Lisicki was not done, twice breaking back to get on terms in the third and then converting another to serve out at 5-4.
She spurned a match point, but took her second before breaking into tears in front of the rapturous Centre Court crowd.
Lisicki next meets Kaia Kanepi for a place in the semi-finals, after the Estonian overcame British hope Laura Robson 7-6(6) 7-5.
Li Na romped into the Wimbledon quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-0 victory over Roberta Vinci.
The 2011 French Open champion served for the first set at 5-0 up but was broken by the doubles specialist, who raised loud cheers on Court Three as she finally registered a game against her name on the scoreboard.
The 30-year-old Vinci, seeded 11th, held her next service game but from then on Li was an unstoppable force as she won the next seven games to reach the last eight at Wimbledon for the third time.
The Chinese favourite will next face either 2012 runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska or Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova.
Petra Kvitova flew the flag for former Wimbledon champions on Monday when she became the first to make the quarter-finals with a 7-6 6-3 win over doughty Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro.
After the high-profile departures of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova in the first week - and then Williams - Kvitova sneaked through on a blustery Court Three before the main fourth-round action had started on the big show courts.
It was not all plain sailing for the 2011 champion, who has yet to rediscover the consistency that took her to world number two 20 months ago.
"I was pretty nervous today...I didn't play my best, especially in the first set. But it's important to win the last point which was what I did," Kvitova told a news conference.
Suarez Navarro, 24, the last Spanish woman in the draw, harried her from the baseline, moving fast, returning early and chasing down the Czech's booming groundstrokes.
She was watched in the stands by Fed Cup captain Conchita Martinez, the only Spanish woman to win the Wimbledon title when she beat Martina Navratilova in the 1994 final.
Eighth seed Kvitova, 23, broke the Spaniard's serve and should have finished off the first set in the 12th game but nervy shots allowed Suarez Navarro to break back, using her rare and elegant single-handed backhand to stinging effect.
With big names like the injured Victoria Azarenka and former world number one Caroline Wozniacki gone, Kvitova was clearly feeling the weight of expectation.
"Everybody is talking about that I'm the highest seeded player in my half, I'm supposed to be already in the final. It's not really easy to hear that," she said.
But the statuesque Czech's power eventually proved too much for her more diminutive opponent and she pressured Suarez Navarro into slapping a forehand into the net to take the set 7-5 in the tiebreak.
Emerging victorious from a tight tiebreak appeared to energise Kvitova and she bowled through the second set in 34 minutes, using her big left-handed serve, long reach and strength to quell her Spanish opponent.
Kvitova will play 20th seed Kirsten Flipkens in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
"I lost against her last time in Miami. So I hope that I can play better tennis than in the last match," she said.
"We've never played on the grass, which is quite difficult."
No comments:
Post a Comment