Four Girls with lifetime opportunity at Wimbledon

Written by: Staff on 29th June 2011

Four Girls with lifetime opportunity at Wimbledon

Sabine Lisicki of Germany returns to Marion Bartoli of France during their quarter final match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 28 June 2011. EPA/NEIL MUNNS |

Uber grunter Maria Sharapova crushed the No. 24 seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-1 6-1 in one hour.

Maria won the title at Wimbledon seven years ago and her chances of winning this year’s title are high to very high.

German Sabine Lisicki looked very nervous against Marion Bartoli of France yesterday. Lisicki is the first German since Steffi Graf to reach the semifinals of Wimbledon.

Bartoli put up a good fight but Lisicki came through 6-4 6-7 6-1 to claim her spot in the semis.

Lisicki who is on the mend from an ankle injury that kept her out of the game for five months last year said, “I was in the quarters once here tow years ago but this feels amazing, especially after all I went through. It’s also great for German tennis. This is not only for me but our other girls as well. I met Steffi (Graf). I missed her playing because I started watching tennis a bit later. But I’d heard all about her. It’s unbelievable what she did for German tennis.”

Sharapova and Lisicki will face each other in the top half semi-final on Thursday.

The bottom half of the women’s draw has seen some strange results over the past week. The seeds in this half of the draw, Schiavone, Kuznetsova, Venus Williams and Vera Zvonareva did not making it past the quarterfinals.

Victoria Azarenka, the No.4 seed took out Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-3 6-1. It was the first time in Wimbledon’s history a match had started on one court and finished on another. Azarenka and Paszek started the match on Court One but play was suspended due to rain. The match was moved to Centre Court and was finished off under the roof. The waiting crowd on Court One was offered a ticket to the Centre Court to watch the match.

Next up for Azarenka is Czech player Petra Kvitova. Kvitova overcame Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 6-3 7-6 (5) 6-2.

Petra Kvitova is no stranger to Wimbledon’s second week. She reached the semi-finals here last year.

With Venus and Serena Williams out of the competition anything can happen. The four girls in the semi-finals have been given an opportunity of a lifetime – Lifting the silverware on Saturday.