Sabine Lisicki Edges Radwanska In Epic Semi

Written by: Staff on 4th July 2013

Sabine Lisicki Edges Radwanska In Epic Semi

epa03775310 Sabine Lisicki of Germany returns to Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in their semi-final match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 04 July 2013. EPA/TOM HEVEZI |

(Original Story: http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/3228519/title/lisicki-edges-radwanska-in-epic-semi )

With one last forehand winner up the line – her 60th winner of the match – Sabine Lisicki won absolute thriller against Agnieszka Radwanska in the second Wimbledon semifinal on Thursday, moving through to the first Grand Slam final of her career by virtue of a 64 26 97 scoreline.

The big serves and huge groundstrokes were hitting their marks from the start – Lisicki broke in the seventh game of the match and calmy held the rest of the way to put away a 33-minute opening frame.

The two traded breaks early in the second set but there was a swing brewing – from 3-2, Radwanska reeled off six games in a row, running away with the second set and building a 3-0 lead in the third.

But anyone who witnessed Lisicki’s fourth round upset of Serena Williams knew that wasn’t the end by any means – and in an almost identical turnaround, the German battled back from that deficit, winning three games in a row to tie things up at 3-all. Things between the two were dead even once more.

Lisicki was the next player to draw blood, breaking serve to lead 5-4 and then serving an ace to go up 15-0. But there’s a reason Radwanska is the No.4 player in the world, and that she’s generally regarded as the craftiest player on tour – a perfect drop shot, volley and lob later and she brought up double break point, and a few points later she got the break back, drawing even to 5-all again.

She couldn’t pull those kinds of tricks out of her bag again, though – after the two traded holds the next four games Lisicki broke one last time for 8-7 and swiftly served out the match, the No.23-seeded German firing a forehand winner to close out the No.4-seeded Pole in two hours and 18 minutes.

Lisicki is now through to her first Grand Slam final and is the first German to reach a Grand Slam final since Steffi Graf at Wimbledon in 1999 (Graf finished runner-up to Lindsay Davenport there).

Topics: Agnizka Radwanska, Sabine Lisicki, Steffi Graf, Wimbledon Championshoips