ANA IVANOVIC OUT OVER LISICKI IN THE CHAMPIOSHIPS WIMBLEDON 2014

Sabine Lisicki’s love affair with the grass courts of Wimbledon continues apace. Her 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic in a match much delayed by adverse weather conditions puts her into the last 16 of the Ladies’ Singles, an event where, in her last four appearances, she has finished runner-up, a semi-finalist and twice a quarter-finalist. 

 She had already taken the opening set on Saturday evening when darkness put an end to the proceedings. Rain caused another delay on today’s resumption with Ivanovic leading 5-2 in the second set and when, after an hour and 20 minutes, they restarted the Serb promptly levelled the match, only for the German to run away with the third set in just 27 minutes, finishing off with successive aces. “It’s so much fun to play out there,” said Lisicki of the Wimbledon surface. It certainly appeared that way in the third set when she pulled away impressively. Lisicki was second only to Serena Williams last year as the WTA Tour’s ace queen with 297 in 52 matches, with 45 of them coming at the 2013 Championships. There have been 102 aces so far this year, including 16 in three rounds here. “The crowd knows my story here,” she said. “I came here as a young girl and I came back from injury. It’s a big story with Wimbledon. So I love the support I’m getting here. It’s so much more enjoyable” The two women had managed only 57 minutes on Saturday evening, and though the sun greeted their appearance on No. 1 Court after a two-day absence the clouds began to build up as Ivanovic, who was briefly world No.1 after winning the French Open six years ago and describes herself as “strong willed and extremely competitive”, lived up to that description by twice breaking the Lisicki serve before the match was again disrupted for an hour and 20 minutes. On the resumption Ivanovic, who has shown a welcome return to her form of 2008 this year by winning three titles (her first for three years), wrapped up the second set in 38 minutes of actual playing time with a love game, although benefitting from a net cord winner on set point. “In the third set my serve went down a little bit,” Ivanovic admitted. “And she served unbelievable in that third set. She played really, really good.” So well, in fact, that the 24-year-old Florida-based German rushed into a 3-0 lead, hustling Ivanovic out of her stride and breaking again for a 5-1 lead.