JOIN USGerman Sabine Lisicki sent another seismic shockwave through Wimbledon on Monday when she dumped five-times champion Serena Williams out of the tournament with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 fourth-round upset.
Top seed Williams, the overwhelming favourite for the title with her chief rivals already out, appeared to have turned the match around when she led 3-0 in the decider but Lisicki, the 2011 semifinalist, rallied with a gripping fightback on Centre Court.
Lisicki refused to capitulate and after breaking to lead 5-4, the resilient 23rd seed secured victory on her second match point to set up a last-eight meeting with Estonian Kaia Kanepi.
After dropping just 11 games in the first week, her surprise exit, which mirrored those of former men's champions Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal last week, ended Williams's win streak at 34 matches and it was only her fourth loss in the last 76.
Lisicki took advantage of a somewhat sluggish Williams to seize the first set, her strong serve and fizzing groundstokes at times leaving the multiple Grand Slam winner rooted to the spot.
The American, aghast, annoyed and berating herself after each error, desperately searched for the missing aggression and from 1-0 down in the second, reeled off nine games in a row.
She made no unforced errors to breeze through the second set and appeared to have knocked the stuffing out of her reeling opponent. But the doubts began to creep back into her game as each time she appeared to be in control, the German answered with breaks of her own before Williams dropped her serve to trail 5-4.
Williams saved one match point, then wasted a break point of her own before Lisicki sealed the biggest victory of her career with a rasping forehand winner.
In another women’s fourth round match, Laura Robson began the second week of Wimbledon looking to become the first British woman to reach the quarterfinals since 1984 but took just over 90 minutes to depart in tears as she was beaten in straight sets by Estonian Kaia Kanepi.
Robson, 19, awoke to newspaper stories predicting fame, riches and good odds of a future Grand Slam title but in a ragged, error-strewn display she was dispatched 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 by the big-serving 36th-ranked Kanepi who reached the quarterfinals for the second time.
In the men’s section, Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer reached the quarterfinals for the second successive year while Jerzy Janowicz and Lukasz Kubot set-up an all-Polish showdown for a place in the last four.
Ferrer fired 53 winners in his 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-3), 6-1, 6-1 win over Croatia’s unseeded Ivan Dodig and goes on to tackle either Argentine eighth seed Juan Martin del Potro or Andreas Seppi, the 23rd seeded Italian.
Janowicz, the 24th seed, defeated 31-year-old Jurgen Melzer, who was hoping to become the first Austrian man to reach the last eight. The 22-year-old Janowicz’s 3-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win was based on 16 aces and 34 winners as he reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
He was joined in the last eight just moments later when 31-year-old Kubot, the lowest-ranked player left at 130 in the world, defeated France’s 111-ranked Adrian Mannarino, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Bops-Edouard advance
India’s Rohan Bopanna and partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France entered the men’s doubles quarterfinals with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 win over Austrian-Brazilian pair of Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares. Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin will next take on Swedish-Canadian sixth seeds Robert Lindstedt and Daniel Nestor in the last eight clash.
India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and J Knowles of Austria, meanwhile, entered the fourth round beating Canadians J Levine and V Pospisil 6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the third round.
Agencies
Results (fourth round, prefix denotes seeding): Men’s singles: Lukasz Kubot (Pol) bt Adrian Mannarino (Fra) 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; 24-Jerzy Janowicz (Pol) bt Jurgen Melzer (Aut) 3-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4; 4-David Ferrer (Esp) bt Ivan Dodig (Cro) 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-1, 6-1.
Women’s singles: 17-Sloane Stephens (US) bt Monica Puig (Puerto Rico) 4-6, 7-5, 6-1; 23-Sabine Lisicki (Ger) bt 1-Serena Williams (US) 6-2, 1-6, 6-4; Kaia Kanepi (Est) bt Laura Robson (Gbr) 7-6 (8-6), 7-5; 6-Li Na (Chn) bt 11-Roberta Vinci (Ita) 6-2, 6-0; 20-Kirsten Flipkens (Bel) bt Flavia Pennetta (Ita) 7-6 (7-2), 6-3; 8-Petra Kvitova (Cze) bt 19-Carla Suarez Navarro (Esp) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.