Sabine Lisicki: Sabine Lisicki is a German professional tennis player. She was born in Troisdorf.
Lisicki has won three WTA singles tournaments in her career and one doubles tournament in 2011. She reached the quarterfinals of the 2009 and 2012 Wimbledon Championships and the semifinals of the 2011 Wimbledon Championships. She achieved her career high rank of world number 12 on 21 May 2012. After struggling with injuries in 2010, Lisicki rebounded in 2011 and re-entered the top 100 of the world rankings. She is only the second woman in Wimbledon history to make it to the semifinals while entering the tournament as a wildcard.
Since 2004 Lisicki has trained at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida, USA, where she is sponsored and managed by IMG. She is coached by her father, who studied sport science in Wrocław and Cologne.
Lisicki had a successful year in 2007 on the ITF circuit and climbed from World No. 497 to World No. 198 in the WTA rankings. She won two titles, one in Jersey and the other in Toronto, Canada. She defeated top-seed Katie O’Brien on 2 August 2007 at the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open.
In 2006, Lisicki competed at the 2006 Sunfeast Open – Singles Qualifying in Kolkata where she crushed Ragini Vimal 6–1, 6–0 in the first round, but lost in the qualifying round to Sanaa Bhambri of India.
Lisicki’s first tournament in 2012 was the 2012 ASB Classic Tournament where she was the number 1 seed. In the first round, she defeated Virginie Razzano 6–4, 6–4. In the second round, she defeated Mona Barthel 7–6, 3–6, 6–3. In the quarterfinal, she faced Angelique Kerber, 2011 US Open semi-finalist, and was losing 4–6, before retiring, due to a back injury, in the second set at a score of 3–4. In doubles, she entered with Chinese player Peng Shuai and they won their first round match against Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 6–2, 6–3. Both the Italians would go on to the Australian Open in four weeks time. In the second round, they pulled out due to the injury picked up by Lisicki in the quarterfinal of the singles tournament against Angelique Kerber.
Lisicki next entered the 2012 Apia International Sydney where she was unseeded. Before the first round of the tournament began, she pulled out with her recent back injury and gave her place to Lucky Loser, Alexandra Dulgheru.
Sabine Lisicki next competed in the Australian Open where she was the fourteenth seed. In the first round, she faced Swiss Stefanie Vögele and beat her 6–2, 4–6, 6–4. In the second round, she defeated Shahar Pe’er 6–1, 6–2. In the third round, she beat eighteenth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 2–6, 6–4, 6–2. She was defeated by Russian Maria Sharapova 6–3 2–6 3–6. Lisicki took the first set, winning six consecutive games after being down 0–3, but was unable to match Sharapova in the following two sets.
At the 2012 Fed Cup, Lisicki played for Germany alongside Julia Görges, Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Angelique Kerber. She started off the meeting between Germany and the Czech Republic by facing Iveta Benešová. She lost the match by a score of 6–2, 4–6, 2–6. In her second match, she faced Wimbledon Champion Petra Kvitová and also lost 7–6, 4–6, 1–6. Germany lost the meeting by a score of 1–4.
Her next tournament was supposed to be the 2012 Open GDF Suez where she was to be the fifth seed. She pulled out before the tournament began with a viral illness.
Lisicki then competed in the 2012 Qatar Ladies Open where she was the ninth seed. In the first round she met compatriot and the unseeded Angelique Kerber and lost 6–4, 4–6, 1–6 to continue a losing streak dating back to the fourth round of the Australian Open. In doubles, she was the fourth seed along with Russian Maria Kirilenko. They received a bye into the second round. There they met Andreja Klepač and Alicja Rosolska. They beat them by a score of 6–2, 4–6, [10–8]. In the third round they met fifth seeds Nuria Llagostera Vives and Anastasia Rodionova. They lost the first set 4–6, and in the second set, Llagostera Vives and Rodionova took an early 3–1 lead, but Lisicki and Kirilenko were able to even the score by winning the following two games. The two teams swapped a break of serve to bring the score to 4–4. The teams held serve and brought the set to a tiebreak. Lisicki and Kirilenko won 7–3 to level the score at 1 set each. In the third set, they lost at a score of [8–10] and hence lost the match.
Lisicki’s next tournament was the 2012 Dubai Tennis Championships, where she was supposed to face fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the first round. However, after second seed Petra Kvitová withdrew, she became the ninth seed and received Kvitová’s bye into the second round. There she met Iveta Benešová, defeating her 6–3, 6–3. In the quarterfinals, she faced the fifth seed, Agnieszka Radwańska, losing 2–6, 1–6.
Lisicki’s next competition was the 2012 Indian Wells tournament, where she was the eleventh seed. She received a bye into the second round, where she faced Spaniard Lourdes Domínguez Lino, losing 1–6, 4–6. In doubles, she competed with compatriot Julia Görges. They beat Americans Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears by a score of 6–2, 6–7, [10–7]. The two German pros next faced Czech pair and 2011 French Open champions Lucie Hradecká and Andrea Hlaváčková, losing 2–6, 4–6.
Lisicki knocked out world number one and current French Open Champion, Maria Sharapova, in the fourth round of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships before losing in the quarter-finals Lisicki next went to the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open, where she was the twelfth seed. She got a bye to the second round where she faced Sofia Arvidsson. Lisicki won 6–3, 6–2. She faced Peng Shuai in the third round. She won 6–4, 7–5 and then faced Li Na in the fourth round. There Lisicki lost the match 6–3, 4–6, 2–6.
At the 2012 Family Circle Cup, Lisicki was the sixth seed. She received a bye into the second round. There she faced lucky loser Andrea Hlaváčková, winning 2–6, 6–3, 6–4. She faced qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova in the third round and won 7–5, 6–4. In the quarterfinal, she faced Serena Williams. Behind 1–4 to her opponent, Lisicki fell and injured her left ankle. She retired from the match in tears, sending Serena to the semis. In doubles, she paired with 2012 Australian Open women’s doubles champion Vera Zvonareva. They faced top seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond and lost 2–6, 2–6.
As a result of the fall in her quarterfinal match, Lisicki was forced to the sideline at the Fed Cup World Group Play-off tie against Australia. She was also forced to pull out of the 2012 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, from which she was defending a quarterfinal spot in singles and the doubles title which she won with Samantha Stosur. Lisicki also missed the 2012 Mutua Madrid Open, a Premier Mandatory tournament.
After nearly a month off the tour, Lisicki returned as the twelfth seed in the 2012 Internazionali BNL d’Italia. She faced Marina Erakovic in the first round, where she lost 6–7(4–7), 6–4, 3–6. Traveling next to her home country for the 2012 Internationaux de Strasbourg, where she was the top seed, Lisicki again experienced a first round upset, losing to Pauline Parmentier 4–6, 4–6. Sabine then traveled to Paris to play the second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open, where she was the twelfth seed. On the red clay of Roland Garros, Lisicki lost 4–6, 3–6 to American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Lisicki started her summer grass court season by defending her title in the 2012 AEGON Classic. As the second seed she received a bye into the second round, where she lost 3–6, 4–6 to Urszula Radwańska. This set Lisicki up with a 5 match losing streak going into the 2012 Wimbledon Championships. In the first round she beat unseeded Petra Martić at a score of 6–4, 6–2, breaking the losing streak and putting her into the second round, where she faced Serb qualifier Bojana Jovanovski. Lisicki won the match 3–6, 6–2, 8–6 to set up a third round tie with Sloane Stephens, where she again faced a tight match, pulling through with a score of 7–6(7–5), 1–6, 6–2. In the fourth round she beat top seed Maria Sharapova, to whom she had lost in the semi-finals the previous year, by the score of 6–4, 6–3. In the subsequent quarterfinals round Lisicki once again met fellow German Angelique Kerber. Having lost the previous 4 meetings between the German stars, Lisicki proceeded to lose the first set 3–6. Lisicki rallied in the second set to take it in a tiebreak; in this second set Lisicki saved 2 match points. Some observers felt Kerber was visibly frustrated during the start of the third set, but Lisicki proved ultimately unable to take the match. At one point Lisicki was serving for the match, but Kerber went on the take the third set, and the match, by a score of 3–6, 7–6(9–7), 5–7,dropping Sabine Lisicki back down to a world ranking of 18.
Lisicki entered the 2012 Mercury Insurance Open as the fifth seed but pulled out with an abdominal injury. She went straight back to London to prepare for the 2012 Summer Olympics. She entered the singles where she was seeded fifteenth, the doubles with Angelique Kerber where they were seeded fifth and the mixed doubles with Christopher Kas where they were unseeded. In the singles, she beat Ons Jabeur 4–6, 6–0, 7–5 and Yaroslava Shvedova 4–6, 6–3, 7–5 in the first and second rounds respectively. She lost to Maria Sharapova 7–6(10–8), 4–6, 3–6 in the third round despite winning the first set and leading 4–2 in the second. In the doubles, Lisicki and Kerber beat British pair Laura Robson and Heather Watson in the first round after losing the first set whilst taking only eleven points and going 4–2 down in the second set. They came back to win 1–6, 6–4, 6–3. In the second round they lost to Venus and Serena Williams 2–6, 5–7. In the mixed doubles, Lisicki and Kas beat second seeds Bob Bryan and Liezel Huber in the first round 7–6(7–5), 6–7(5–7), 10–5 then beat Daniele Bracciali and Roberta Vinci in the quarter final 4–6, 7–6(7–2), 10–7. In the semi final, they lost to Andy Murray and Laura Robson 1–6, 7–6(9–7), 7–10. In the bronze medal match, they lost to third seeds Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond 3–6, 6–4, 10–4.
Lisicki moved on to the 2012 Rogers Cup in Montreal. She was fifteenth seed in singles falling in her opening match to Carla Suárez Navarro at a score of 6–3, 3–6, 4–6. In doubles she made it to the quarterfinals partnering Peng Shuai. They beat sixth seeds Iveta Benešová and Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová and Natalie Grandin and Vladimíra Uhlířová in the first and second rounds respectively. They were forced to pull out of the competition at 5–6 against top seeds Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber as a result of Lisicki getting a left abdominal injury.
Lisicki entered the 2012 US Open as the 16th seed, but she was upset in the first round by Romania’s Sorana Cîrstea, 4–6, 6–2, 6–2. In doubles, Lisicki again partnered with Peng Shuai. They beat Laura Robson and Shahar Pe’er in the first round, twelfth seeds Anastasia Rodionova and Galina Voskoboeva in the second and sixth seeds Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova in the third. They lost to eventual finalists Andrea Hlaváčková and Lucie Hradecká in the quarter-finals.
Lisicki’s next tournament was in Japan at the 2012 Toray Pan Pacific Open. In singles, she started with a first round loss against British qualifier Heather Watson 6–4, 7–6(7–3). In doubles, she partnered with world number 3, Lisa Raymond. They face Monica Niculescu and Alicja Rosolska, both of whom have recently lost in WTA doubles finals. Lisicki and Raymond won 6–3, 6–1. In their quarter-final match with alternates Darija Jurak and Katalin Marosi, they won 6–4, 6–2. They now face either third seeds Zheng Jie and Katarina Srebotnik or Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears for a place in the final.
Lisicki next participated at the China Open, but she was defeated in the second round by the eventual champion Victoria Azarenka. She next moved to Linz where she lost in the first round to Patricia Mayr-Achleitner. Lisicki finished her season losing in the first round of the 2012 BGL Luxembourg Open to Kirsten Flipkens 6–3, 3–6, 1–6.
Her parents emigrated to West Germany from Poland in 1979; her father, Dr. Richard Lisicki, is of German and Polish descent, and her mother, Elisabeth, of Polish. They went to Germany being part of the German minority in Poland (“Spätaussiedler”) Her father, who introduced her to the sport at the age of 7, is her coach and her mother, Elizabeth, is a painter specializing in ceramics. Lisicki currently lives in Bradenton, Florida. She is fluent in German, English and Polish. Her off-court interests include reading, music and athletics.
Her official website: http://www.sabinelisicki.com/
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