The biggest story to start the second week of competitions at the 2012 Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles championships is the elimination of top-seeded Maria Sharapova in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 to Germany’s Sabine Lisicki.
Lisicki, ranked 15th in the world, avenged her defeat at last year’s Wimbledon semifinals. This is her first victory out of four matches against the Russian number one.
Sharapova just achieved her fourth Grand Slam title at the French Open earlier last month and is the heavy favorite to win the grasscourt Slam event, considering she’s a past champion (2004). She became the biggest name to fall out of the tournament after two-time men’s singles champion Rafael Nadal was knocked out of the second round last week.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Lisicki said.
“For the third time I’ve beaten the French Open champion here. I’m just so happy. I’ve lost the three previous meetings against her. Now I just played well and beat her for the first time,” she added.
Sharapova is trying to emulate the feat of Serena Williams in 2002 when the latter won both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year.
“I just went for my shots. Really from the first point on I felt great out there,” Lisicki said.
“It’s my favorite tournament, I love playing on grass, I love the crowd here. I just love it,” she exclaimed.
Up next for Lisicki is eighth-seeded compatriot Angelique Kerber who eliminated Kim Clijsters 6-1, 6-1. Clijsters has already stated that this will be her last Wimbledon tournament after announcing earlier this year that she’ll be retiring for good after the US Open 2012 tournament.
