Sabine Lisicki reached her first grand slam semi-final with a 6-4 6-7 (7-4) 6-1 victory over Marion Bartoli at Wimbledon.
German comes through in deciding set to knock out 2007 finalist
Sabine Lisicki reached her first grand slam semi-final with a 6-4 6-7 (7-4) 6-1 victory over Marion Bartoli at Wimbledon.
The 21-year-old wild card wasted three match points in the second set before eventually holding her nerve in the decider to knock out Serena Williams' conqueror in the last eight.
Bartoli, the ninth seed at SW19 this year, had been the favourite going into the third set but simply could not sustain the level she had showed on Monday in beating defending champion Williams.
A quarter-finalist two years ago, Lisicki spent last summer on crutches after an ankle operation and earlier this year dropped outside the world's 200.
However, having already defeated French Open champion Li Na in the third round, she continued to justify her Wimbledon wild card by seeing off Bartoli.
Booming serve
Lisicki's booming serve and forehand proved huge weapons on grass, helping her to take her opponent's first service game to love.
The German promptly dropped her serve as well but a third successive break gave her the advantage again and this time she held on to it to clinch the opening set.
Bartoli, 26, had been a surprise Wimbledon finalist in 2007, beating Justine Henin before eventually losing to Venus Williams, and she got her nose in front in the second set with a break in the fourth game.
Lisicki hit straight back, though, using a tactic that had served her very well, the drop shot, before moving to the brink of victory with another break making it 5-4.
An ace brought up her first match point, only for a tame error to follow. Then came a superb lob to move to the brink again, only for Bartoli to win one of the points of the tournament to somehow keep the match alive.
A third match point came and went, and suddenly it was break point. This time Lisicki could not hold her nerve, throwing in her first double fault of the match.
A tie-break was eventually needed to decide the set and Bartoli was always in the ascendancy, clinching it by a 7-4 scoreline with a drop shot of her own.
Lisicki survived an early scare on her own serve - having let slip a 40-0 lead - before grabbing a crucial break at the start of the third set.
Bartoli did win the fourth game to get on the board but the end was nigh when a woeful smash contributed to another break. Serving for the match for a second time when 5-1 up, Lisicki clinched victory when her rival netted a forehand.
She will play former champion Maria Sharapova in Thursday's semi-finals.
