Serena Williams has been defeated by Sabine Lisicki of Germany in the 4th round of the Wimbledon Championships. Lisicki won the match by 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
This was a huge upset. Serena was the defending champion and nobody had expected her to be knocked out this early. But, she got completely outsmarted by Lisicki.
In the post match interview, Serena said, “I think I committed mistakes during crucial moments. I could have done much better. I am absolutely gutted at the moment.”
Serena was on a winning streak of 34 matches before coming into this match. She was considered as top favourite, but, she looked clumsy and her performance was ordinary for most parts of the match.
On the other hand, Lisicki was at her best. She made a few mistakes in the second set, but, barring that, she was fantastic. The confidence with which she took on a champion player like Serena was incredible.
In the post match interview, Lisicki said, “I knew that it would be a big challenge, but, I was positive. I just went out there and tried to do the basics right. It came off well.”
In the first set, Lisicki was at the top of her game. She held her entire serves and sneaked a couple of breakthroughs (in the 5th and the 7th game) to grab the opener by 6-2.
In the second set, Serena went absolutely ballistic. The first couple of games went with the serve and the scores were levelled at 1-1 when the second game got over. After that, Lisicki couldn’t win even a single game in the set. Her serve was broken thrice consecutively and she lost the set by 1-6.
Serena carried on the momentum in the decider as well and with a breakthrough in the 2nd game, she was off to a lead of 3-0.
Lisicki pulled things back with a serve hold in the 4th game and a breakthrough in the 5th game, but, she lost her serve again in the 6th game and got trailed by 2-4.
However, the German player kept her cool and played brilliant tennis at that crucial juncture. With two consecutive breakthroughs, she won the next 4 games in a row and sealed the set by 6-4 to win the match.