Sabine Lisicki stoops out to Angelique Kerber in the opening round – Qatar Total Open 2012
Crowd at the hard courts of Qatar, Doha, was in for a huge surprise on Tuesday when the 22nd ranked German tennis ace, Angelique Kerber, ousted the world number 14, Sabine Lisicki, in the opening round of the Qatar Total
Open. The unseeded German laboured hard for two hours and 11 minutes before she finally registered the first major upset of the tournament by dumping the ninth seed fellow compatriot in an arduous three-setter, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
The 24-year-old Kerber kept her clean sheet against Lisicki in singles encounters, defeating the crafty German for a fourth successive time to lead 4-0 in the all-time head-to-head series. She outplayed the 14th ranked
Lisicki in the quarter-final round of the ASB Classic in Auckland last month and carried on with her winning momentum to repeat the results on Tuesday afternoon also.
22-year-old Lisicki has been in a brilliant form for the past few months and the world number 14 was expected to break her losing streak against Kerber in the opening round of Qatar Total Open. Kerber dropped the opening set early
to fall on the back foot but made a tremendous recovery to reel off the remaining two sets to stun everyone present in the arena. She steadily gathered pace in the second set and then finished off the match with a breadstick in the final set to advance to
the second round of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier tournament.
"I know Sabine very well. She's a great player, and I'm very happy I won this match today," Kerber said. "It was not easy to prepare for this tournament and this match, but I was trying to focus on me and my game. I played a lot
last week and am not feeling very good, but I was fighting and I'm still here."
After a flying start in the opening set, Lisicki tend to lose her steam in the later parts of the contest Her inconsistent serve games and piles of unforced errors proved a bit too taxing for her in the end.
"It was just an awful day today," said Lisicki. "I was sick last week but I was practicing and came here to play, but today I simply played badly. I think today alone I made as many unforced errors as the last 10 tournaments."
With six break point conversions and winning 44 out of 73 first serve points, Kerber beat Lisicki to carry on her voyage to clinch her second WTA championship title of the current year in Qatar. She won her maiden title at the
Open GDF Suez in Paris, France last week.
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