For Sabine Lisicki, Wimbledon’s Centre Court holds a mixture of memories.
She will remember fondly her enthralling defeat of defending champion Serena Williams in the fourth round 12 months ago. She will remember with perhaps less fondness the heartbreaking defeat to Marion Bartoli in last year’s final. But time is a curious healer, and this afternoon Lisicki returns to Centre Court, afforded the honour of opening play in the absence of the now-retired Bartoli. The Frenchwoman will be present, however, appearing on court for the coin toss, accompanied by a member of the Elena Baltacha Academy of Tennis. But the tennis will be all about Lisicki, and her opponent, Julia Glushko of Israel. The pair have never met, but as ever at Wimbledon, Lisicki is likely to have the upper hand.
Williams meanwhile has opened Centre Court many a time, five times to be precise, and could well be closing it for the ladies come 5 July. She was in no mood for any nonsense at her pre-Wimbledon press conference the other day, and that could spell trouble for the rest of the field in the ladies’ singles. There haven’t been many “young things” who have regularly got the better of Williams and she will doubtless be determined to deal as summarily with the new crop as she did earlier ones. She could be forgiven for thinking they were ganging up on her because two of the biggest and brightest are in her half of the draw: the 20-year-old Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and the frighteningly powerful 19-year-old American Madison Keys.
But first things first and Williams needs to clear fellow American Anna Tatishvili from her path today. Actually, it’s Bouchard who has to negotiate a tall order in the shape of the very capable grass court player Daniela Hantuchova on No.1 Court.
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