Sabine Lisicki digs deep to beat Na Li in the second round – Wimbledon Championships 2011
German tennis star Sabine Lisicki defeated Chinese tennis player of the moment Na Li 3-6, 6-4, 8-6 in the second round of Wimbledon Championships 2011.
The German wildcard played vintage tennis against a player who was unbeaten at the 2011 French Open to reach the third round of the tournament on Friday.
Lisicki, quarterfinalist here in 2009, kept her nerve to win the second round match against bookmaker’s favourite Li, who until Thursday was expected to reach the third
round without much of a fuss.
Li entered the Wimbledon Open as one of the most-preferred players but her German opponent had an answer to just about everything Li could rejuvenate, shooting back shot
after shot and waiting for her Chinese opponent to make the mistakes, even though Lisicki finished with 21 unforced errors, one more than Li.
Despite having a whopping 58-places difference in their rankings, the 21-year-old Lisicki proved to have the stronger nerve in the ending stages of the match. That had not
appeared likely when the German No.3 let an early 3-6 slip in the opener, but only to take it right back in the second set.
The Chinese tennis ace was performing well below the level she found in beating Russian, Alla Kudryavtseva in the opening round. With her serve surprisingly flimsy and shaky,
Lisicki broke twice en route to levelling the match in the second set.
A tight third set looked to be resulting in an interesting tie-breaker until Lisicki suffered a meltdown, smacking a string of unforced errors and allowing Li to dictate
the terms with 5-0 lead. Again the Chinese No.1 could not build on her advantage, and a sliced forehand pass from the Lisicki put the German in control, before the Chinese ace immediately broke back to level the score 5-5.
In a dramatic set of shifting of fortunes, wasteful winners, and costly errors, Lisicki held her games together much the better of two women.
That looked like it would count for little at 5-5 when the German player slipped to 5-6 lead, but Lisicki found a wonderful volley and her dynamite forehand were the key
to turn this match around.
Standing in a way of her fourth round spot is the Japanese qualifier, Misaki Doi, who beat Zheng Jie of China to set up a clash with the electrifying German.
Lisicki and Doi will meet up for the first time in their career.
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