Sabine Lisicki bows out to Parmentier in round one of Internationaux de Strasbourg: Tennis Special
Top seeded wildcard entrant, Sabine Lisicki, crashed out by the local contender, Pauline Parmentier, in straight sets at the Internationaux de Strasbourg 2012 on Monday. She suffered a 4-6, 4-6 shock at the hands of the world number 66 at this WTA (Women’s
Tennis Association) International-level tournament taking place in Strasbourg, France.
The German ace was ruled for much of the clay court season with an ankle injury. Adding further to her miser, she was underplayed by the 26-year-old in her opening round match at this clay court event. As a result, the French not only took lead in the head-to-head
series by 1-0 against Lisicki but also secured a spot in the round of 16.
Lisicki made a drastic entry at this clay court event and suffered the first blow in the opening game to fall at 0-2. She smoothly swiped in remaining serves but the initial loss led to a 4-6 defeat in the opening set. The German failed to capitalise on
both break chances and saved only two out of three breakpoints she faced to gift away the opener.
12th ranked German carried her dismal ways in the follow-up set and lost her opening serve to fall at 0-2 again. Regardless of plucking her remaining serves with poise, she failed to cash in her lone break opportunity and eventually registered
a 4-6 loss again.
Summing up the German’s performance in this encounter, the 22-year-old nudged up a lower first serve share of 56 per cent as opposed to the local star’s 63 per cent and spilled four double faults. She acceptably availed 24 out of 35 points on her first serve
share but dusted away three out of five breakpoints she came across.
Lisicki has a monotonous season so far accompanied with injuries. The blossoming German had a great start as she secured a final eight berth at the ASB Classic in Auckland and then cruised to the fourth round at the Australian Open (lost to the finalist,
Maria Sharapova of Russia). However, her form dipped afterwards as she went on a four-match losing streak.
The ecstatic German snapped out from her losing streak at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship but failed to found her old rhythm.
She started her clay court season at the Family Circle Cup in high spirits but was forced to pull out the tournament in the quarter-finals due to the ankle injury. Since then she has not found her momentum as she exited from her opening round match at the
Internazionali BNL D’Italia in Rome last week before entering this event.
Parmentier on the other side of net will square-off against her compatriot, Stephanie Foretz Gacon.
"I'm very happy," Parmentier stated in a post-match press conference. "I played really well today and was really focused on my game. I played solid and was moving well from the start."
Gacon crushed the British star, Elena Baltacha, with a bagel to set-up this epic encounter. She blocked all four breakpoints she faced and capitalised on four out of 13 break opportunities to manipulate a 6-4, 6-0 success in one hour and 12 minutes.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: