French Open champ Li Na eliminated by wild card Lisicki
Wimbledon, England — French Open champion Li Na squandered two match points and lost in the second round of Wimbledon yesterday to German wild card Sabine Lisicki, the biggest upset of the tournament so far.
The 62nd-ranked Lisicki erased both match points with service winners in the ninth game of the third set and beat the third-seeded Chinese player 3-6, 6-4, 8-6 under the roof on Centre Court.
Other winners on Day 4 included six-time champion Roger Federer, women’s defending titlist Serena Williams and second-seeded Novak Djokovic.
After Li hit a forehand long on Lisicki’s third match point, the 21-year-old German fell to her knees at the baseline and put her head to the turf. She broke into tears at her courtside chair.
“My emotions are so, I mean, just over the moon,” said Lisicki, who served 17 aces and had 32 winners. “It’s just amazing.”
Li was up 4-2 in the third set and twice served for the match but was broken each time. She had won 14 of her previous 15 Grand Slam matches in 2011, reaching the final at the Australian Open, then becoming China’s first major singles champion at Roland Garros last month.
Federer, playing the last match on Centre Court, needed only 1 hour, 28 minutes to put away Adrian Mannarino of France, 6-2, 6-3 6-2. With his parents watching from the Royal Box, the third-seeded Swiss finished the match in style — soaring high in the air for a flying overhead smash.
It was the first time Federer has played under the roof on the court where he has made his name as perhaps the greatest player of all time. Fans held up play by doing the wave before Federer served for the match.
Earlier, Williams recovered from a poor start to defeat Romania’s Simona Halep 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 and move into the third round, staying on course for a fifth title.
Men’s play
In men’s play, Djokovic swept into the third round by beating South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 on Court 1. The Serb has won his opening two rounds in straight sets after his 43-match winning streak was ended by Federer in the French Open semifinals.
In a dramatic five-setter that lasted nearly four hours, No. 5 Robin Soderling came from two sets down to overcome 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt 6-7 (5), 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 in a second-round match played under the Centre Court roof.
The big-swinging Soderling withstood a bravura performance from the 30-year-old Hewitt, who made at least three diving backhands during the match, two at the net and one running pass in the first set in which he rolled over after flicking the ball down the line to break serve.
No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied for a 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (8) win over 20-year-old Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. The Frenchman jumped over the net and helped up his opponent in a sporting gesture after the deciding tiebreaker.
No. 13 seed Viktor Troicki became the highest seeded man to go out so far, falling to Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4. Lu reached the quarterfinals last year.
Late last night, top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki moved into the third round by beating Virginie Razzano of France 6-1, 6-3.
Wozniacki has never won a Grand Slam title, losing in her only final appearance at the 2009 U.S. Open. At Wimbledon, Wozniacki’s best result was reaching the fourth round the last two years.
