Alberta Brianti stuns Sabine Lisicki in opening round – Generali Ladies Linz 2011
World number 74, Alberta Brianti of Italy surprised everyone after upsetting German’s Sabine Lisicki, ranked fifty-seven spots below her, in brutal three sets at the Generali Ladies Linz 2011, a WTA tier-II event taking place from
8th October to 16th October on the hard courts in Linz, Austria. She registered a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory over the 22-year-old German to secure a second round place on Wednesday.
31-year-old Italian made use of her experience to overrun rising star Lisicki in one hour and fifty-one minutes on their third meeting. Brianti avenged her loss at Dallas in August this season and not only advanced into the quarter-finals
but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 2-1 against the German.
The Fontanellato resident, Brianti lost two serves early on in the set to go 4-1 down but went into overdrive mode to pull out a 7-5 victory after breaking Lisicki’s serve four times. She saved only one out of four breakpoints
faced but capitalised on four out of six breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to bag the opener. The Italian also formulated a higher first serve share of 67 percent as compared to the German’s 50 percent and earned an acceptable 50 percent win on it.
In the second set, it was a different story since the seeded German starts re-igniting her spark. She held her opening serve in the second set to level the scores at 1-1. Lisicki then pocketed remaining serves through exquisite
forehands and backhands and after cashing in on the only breakpoint opportunity to her advantage, she clinched the equaliser with a 6-4 win. The German faced zero breakpoint and despite manifesting a slightly lower first serve share, she registered a tremendous
80 percent win on it.
Regardless of losing her serve in the opening game, the Italian relocated the $220,000 track after she was 3-1 down. Brianti reeled off last five games in a row to jolt down the set with a 6-3 success. She failed to fend off the
only breakpoint faced but converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
"It wasn't a great match today - we both made a lot of mistakes - but the most important thing was staying focused from beginning to end," Brianti declared. "Playing a top player like Sabine is never easy. Every point and every
game was tough. So I'm very happy I concentrated well today and won the match."
"I got very, very sick in China and was in the hospital. I'm still recovering from that," Lisicki said. "But after a week in bed it's hard to have a good rhythm. I wanted it really badly, but my body just couldn't handle it."
The Italian will move ahead to face Czech Lucie Safarova who rallied past her countrywoman, Iveta Benesova in three sets to reach this spot.
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