Sabine Lisicki nails a crushing defeat to Svetlana Kuznetsova in third round – Australian Open 2012
One of the most amazing turnarounds of the 2012 Australian Open was witnessed on Saturday afternoon, when the 14th seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany took down the former world number two, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in the third
round battle. She outmuscled the 18th seed Russian in an enthralling three-setter, settling the final scores at 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, to book a place in the round of 16 at the Grand Slam of Asia-Pacific.
It was one of the finest displays of sheer determination and resilience from Lisicki, who recovered from a point where she appeared to be virtually out of the competition. The German lost the opening set in a humiliating manner
and was trailing 1-3 in the second set, with the Russian veteran blazing all guns at her. The German tennis ace recovered from the terrible slump with great mastery, stunning everyone present at the Hisense Arena with her exceptional hitting to turn the tide
in the contest.
The contest almost lasted for two hours; the earlier part belonging to Kuznetsova while the later one completely owned by the brilliance of Lisicki. Although the German beauty coughed 36 unforced errors, including seven double
faults, she came up with seven cracking break points to turn the tables on the 18th seed Russian. The opening five games of the match witnessed five break points been exchanged by both women. Kuznetsova finally asserted her control over the match
when she nailed her fourth serve break to close out the first set at 6-2, taking barely 28 minutes of play.
The Russian broke her opponent’s serve early again in the second set to lead 3-1. Lisicki finally uplifted her game and re-devised her strategy to gain some momentum. She broke the Russian serve in the sixth and 10th
game to clinch the second set at 6-4.
A crucial double fault in the fourth game of the final set awarded a break opportunity to Lisicki and Kuznetsova made it easy for her by hitting a forehand return long off the baseline. Lisicki broke her opponent’s serve once again
in the sixth game, only to be broken in the very next game. However, the ravishing German closed out victory with her seventh break point of the day in the eighth game, securing the final set at 6-2 to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.
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