Serena Williams vs Sabine Lisicki: A battle for the ages

Sabine Lisicki and Serena Williams served out an the best match of the Championships in the ladies’ section

On a partly cloudy Monday afternoon, with the weather forecast to be dry with a few sunny spells, the crowd on Centre Court was eagerly awaiting the match which pitted Britain’s star player Andy Murray against Mikhail Youzhny. The action-starved crowd at SW19 was hoping for clear weather after rain had threatened to play havoc on the schedule resulting in all round of 16 matches of the singles draw to be scheduled on the same day. Little did they anticipate an epic encounter would enthrall them for almost two hours, which culminated in an unexpected result.

Serena Williams, playing the best tennis of her life, was scheduled to take on Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Going by the way she had dispatched her previous opponents with tremendous ease, many expected Serena to go through without much resistance.

But Lisicki had two things in her favour, one being history – she had defeated the reigning French Open champions in her past three appearances at Wimbledon (Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2009, Li Na in 2011 and recently Maria Sharapova in 2012); the other was the fact that she had a game that resembled Serena’s game in many facets – a booming serve, powerful groundstrokes and good footwork.

In the first set, Lisicki served up some of her trademark booming serves, living up to her nickname “Boom Boom.” In fact, it was she who possessed the fastest serve of the tournament at 122mph en route to 17 aces, prior to the match. She also used another ploy against Serena which had worked in the past. Many a time, she tried to hit behind Serena, forcing her to abruptly change direction. This led to many errors on the part of Williams and put pressure on her service games.

At her wits end, Williams hung her head down, pondering what to do. With the pressure not easing, Lisicki finally broke Williams to lead at 4-2 in the first set. In the next game, she never allowed Williams leverage to hit back, banging some of her serves to hold at love. In the next game, Lisicki again broke Williams to take the first set, 6-2.

The second set was a complete contrast to the first. With her 34-match winning streak at stake, Williams had decided that enough was enough. Though the first game began with what seemed like a routine hold by Lisicki, Williams upped the ante from the second game onwards.

Her thunderous first serve was back, and her groundstrokes regained their panache. This coincided with Lisicki faltering in her first serve and committing far too many unforced errors. Sensing her opponent’s weak second serve, Williams positioned herself a few feet before the baseline and delivered some punching returns. Williams broke Lisicki’s serve in the third game of the set.

Lisicki tried a different tactic, trying to hit deeper into the court to counter Serena’s groundstroke prowess but was very inconsistent. A skewed forehand coupled with a faulty first serve didn’t help Lisicki’s cause. Serena broke again in the fifth game, with Lisicki attempting some over-ambitious, off-balance forehand winners that either bounced out or crashed into the net.

Serena went on to capture the second set, 6-1, committing only one unforced error throughout the set. The first set witnessed a flustered Serena screaming at herself, committing many uncharacteristic errors on her groundstrokes. In the second, the returns were powerful, serves were more assured and the mind more composed. The swagger was back, though the face showed no emotion.

Serena Williams had no answer to Lisicki’s big serves.

The trend continued in the first game of the third set, with Lisicki again erring on the forehand side. Serena served at Lisicki’s body, cramping Lisicki’s return and forcing errors. One trend was predominant during the course of the match – Serena was reluctant to approach the net, wary of Lisicki’s accurate, passing shots and cautious of Lisicki hitting behind her. Lisicki’s first serve deserted her again in the initial stages of the third set as Serena again stepped into the baseline to blast winners on the return of serve.

Lisicki’s serve was broken in the second game and things did not look good for the German. In the third game, a tremendous passing shot helped her to get at 15-all, but Serena comfortably held serve to lead 3-0 in the decider. She finally managed to turn around the corner in the third game. With a strong first serve, she managed to outwit Williams with an unexpected second serve ace and opened her account in the final set.

In the next game, a beautiful passing shot and an unexpected net bounce gave her a glimmer of hope and she dug deep to break. Williams broke again and the score was 4-2, in favour of the American. In the next game, Serena cautiously approached the net, only to be greeted by a fabulous passing forehand. Serena desperately stuck out her racquet, but tumbled and fell.

It was a break-of-serve slugfest at Wimbledon with the Centre Court crowd at the edge of their seats. The next game witnessed a flurry of excellent returns of serve from the American, setting up three break points in succession. But Lisicki’s aced her way to safety, reeling off four straight points. She then served up another ace in what turned out to be a very crucial hold-of-serve for the German. With the score tied at 4-4, it was game on at SW19, with the Centre Court crowd wowed by the ever-smiling, energetic nature of the German.

The ninth game turned out to be the most entertaining one of the match. Another passing winner by Lisicki helped her to garner a break point, but threw away the advantage by netting a Williams serve. Lisicki’s attempted drop shot fell farther into the court than she intended and Williams instantly took off, but slipped. She recovered to return the ball and stumbled towards the net, but Lisicki smacked the ball straight down the middle of the court to have advantage again.

The advantage then translated to a break of serve when Serena’s smash turned out to be long. Lisicki had orchestrated a remarkable comeback from 0-3 down to lead 5-4 in the match. With a place in the quarterfinals up for grabs, the German was serving for the match. She began by serving out wide, forcing Williams to hit a tough return that eventually landed into the net. An encore yielded match point at 40-30 for the Smiling Assassin.

Serena then hit back to gain a break point which Lisicki canceled out with an ace. She then closed out the match with a forehand winner at the net and sunk to the ground in tears.

It was a tremendous display of power-hitting, big-serving tennis that concluded with the better player emerging triumphant. The spirit of sport triumphed when Serena waited until her opponent packed her bags, and both players left the court together as the crowd rapturously applauded.