Sabine Lisicki sends home Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinal – Bank of the West Classic 2011
Friday, July 2011 saw the start of the quarterfinal of the Bank of the West Classic 2011. Both the players (Sabine Lisicki and Agnieszka Radwanska) contested on a hard court at the Taube Family Tennis Center, Stanford University, California. During their first meeting the world number 26 Sabine Lisicki survived a mid match lapse 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-2.
Lisicki broke the Polish in the third game and held her serve in the next game to take a 3-1 lead. Radwanska broke back in the eighth game to level the score at 4-4. Both players held their serve in the next four games to take the score to 6-6, forcing a tie-break. She won on consecutive serves in the tie breaker and won the set, along with, a lead of 1-0.
Overall; Sabine threw eight aces, struck two double faults, both which hit the net. She scored an above average of sixty percent in her total serve points along with a mediocre return of forty three percent. Although it was a tough set between both the players Sabine won it by one more point than Radwanska.
A change of events was seen during the second set; after taking a beating in the second serve Radwanska had learnt her lesson and performed way better in this set as compared to her first; she aced twice, her serves had improved along with her return. She won sixteen more percent in her total return points than her first set. This time she threw only two break points out which she managed to save one and converted three out of the four break points she faced.
On the contrary, Sabine performed unsatisfactorily and lost most of her points because of an average serve and an extremely poor return.
This was the final set of the match, who would win and who would lose would be decided in the next few moments. Sabine won the toss; served first and smashed five aces however, because of lack of precision she struck one line fault.
Radwanska also wasn’t to give up easily and although she didn’t strike five aces she smashed two and struck one extra double fault than Sabine’s.
Although both the players had a good serve, Sabine’s was better and scored fifteen percent more points than Radwanka’s in the total serve points. Radwanska lost because of a poor return and because she was not able to win any break points.
On the contrary, Sabine had a stronger and stable defence; she won two out of the five break points, along with, saving a hundred percent of her break points. She won the set and the match in 2 hours, 34 minutes and 40 seconds.
The 21-year-old will now face the 29-year-old American, Serena Williams at the semi-final of the Bank of the West Classic 2011.
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