Williams, it didn't show.
If Lisicki is penciling herself into the Wimbledon final, she isn't saying.
Showing no drop-off after her dramatic victory over Williams, the
23rd-seeded Lisicki returned Tuesday and made quick work of a much
less intimidating opponent, 46th-ranked Kaia Kanepi, dispatching her
6-3, 6-3 in 65 minutes to advance to her second career Wimbledon
semifinal.
"I was ready today," Lisicki said. "I knew from the past, out of
experience, that I needed to make the switch quickly to be ready, and
that's what I did."
Indeed. Lisicki opened the match by breaking Kanepi's serve in the
first game and didn't look back in that set. In the second, she had
one hiccup — a game in which she double-faulted three times to drop a
break and fall behind 2-1. She broke back right away, however, and won
four of the next five games to close out the match.
Now, the 23-year-old German finds herself in the Wimbledon semifinals
for the second time in three years. Her win against Williams made her
the new, odds-on favorite to win the title and even pushed Britain's
favorite tennis player, Andy Murray, off the back pages of a couple
London tabloids.
All of which means almost nothing — at least to hear Lisicki tell it.
"Match by match," she said. "Did that from the start and will continue
to do that."
She'll play the winner of a quarterfinal between No. 4 Agnieszka
Radwanska and No. 6 Li Na. That match started the same time as
Lisicki's but was still undecided more than two hours after she walked
off the court. A pair of rain delays, an injury timeout and split sets
between the two highest seeds left in the tournament extended the
match deep into the afternoon.
Waiting for Li and Radwanska to finish were 20th-seeded Kirsten
Flipkens and eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova. Along with Li, Kvitova is
the only Grand Slam champion left in the women's draw. The winner of
that match will play either No. 15 Marion Bartoli or No. 17 Sloane
Stephens.
Lisicki had the luxury of sitting back and watching all that action
unfold. Her match against Kanepi was nowhere near as grueling as the
emotion-packed upset over Williams the previous day.
"It was a different matchup," Lisicki said. "I was just as focused as
yesterday because I knew it's going to be tough after yesterday's
match to just keep the level up. But I think I did a very good job to
go for my shots and play smart. It had to be a different game today."
It was.
Whereas Lisicki was forced to match Williams' power, she played more
of a finesse game against Kanepi. Six of her 23 winners against Kanepi
came off drop shots and Lisicki only needed two aces (compared to 10
against Williams in their three-set match) to defeat her Estonian
opponent.
Kanepi, who advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Britain's Laura
Robson, said she couldn't match her play from that victory. She had 13
winners and 23 unforced errors against Lisicki and fell to 0-5 in
Grand Slam quarterfinals.
"I thought (when) I tried to attack in previous matches, I hit winners
and did well, but today I was missing a lot," Kanepi said. "But on
grass there is no Plan B. I just have to go for my shots. If there is
a ball, I have to hit it."
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