Sabine Lisicki eases through Shahar Peer in the second round battle – Australian Open 2012
Promising world number 15, Sabine Lisicki of Germany, faced no real challenge in disposing of the 34th ranked Israeli opponent, Shahar Peer, in the second round of the Australian Open on Thursday. She registered victory with a breadstick, finishing off the matchup at 6-1, 6-2, to march into the third round of the Grand Slam of the Asia Pacific.
It was a completely one-sided affair, with the 14th seed Lisicki dominating every second of the match. She came to Melbourne Park out of injury and speculations were made on her physical fitness and form. She had some trouble in her opening round battle against the Swiss qualifier, Stefanie Voegele but overcame her in a three-setter to gain the winning momentum in the competition. The word number 15 proved everyone wrong on Thursday and exhibited a magnificent display of quality hitting throughout the contest to come out as the winner in merely 53 minutes of play.
Lisicki absolutely hammered the Israeli underdog throughout the contest and gave her limited opportunities to have an impact over the match. The 14th seed German registered five out of six cracking serve breaks in the competition, with her opponent recording merely one break point to finish on the losing side. Lisicki secured 21 out of 27 first serve points and was equally good with her return game to prevail the competition.
Action took off right from the beginning of the match, with Lisicki breaking the Israeli serve in the second game en route to a 4-1 lead. She cracked another break point in the sixth game and went on to serve out of the first set with a breadstick at 6-1.
Peer dropped her serve again in the opening game of the next set but made a strong comeback, breaking the German serve with 40-0 in the very next game. Lisicki returned the favour to her opponent in the similar fashion and broke her at 40-0 in the third game to snatch back the advantage. The 14th seed delivered another blow to Peer in the fifth game and carried on with her momentum to reach her first match point at 40-15 in the eighth game. Lisicki threw her arms in air with sheer joy when Peer thumped a forehand return into the net, finishing off the match at 6-2.
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