Friday, June 24, 2011

GreenBkk.com World Sport | French Open champion Li Na crashes out

French Open champion Li Na crashes out

June 23, 2011 -- Updated 2353 GMT (0753 HKT)


Sabine Lisicki can barely contain her joy after defeating French Open champion Li Na at Wimbledon.

(CNN) -- French Open champion Li Na of China has become the biggest name to crash out of Wimbledon so far, beaten in a three-set second round thriller by German wildcard Sabine Lisicki.

The third seed, a quarterfinalist at the grass-court grand slam in 2006, wasted two match points when 5-4 up in the deciding set, before eventually slumping to a 3-6 6-4 8-6 defeat.

The 21-year-old Lisicki, who is moving back up the rankings after missing the majority of 2010 with an ankle injury, will now face Japanese qualifier Misaki Doi for a place in the last 16.

Can the Williams sisters triumph after a troubled year?

"The crowd really helped me when I was facing two match points. They cheered so loudly, I have never heard such a noise," Lisicki, who also reached the quarterfinals here in 2009, told reporters.

Li Na was not the only seed to bite the dust on Thursday, with three others going the same way as the Chinese player.

Polish 13th seed Agnieszka Radwanska was beaten 3-6 7-6 6-4 by Czech Petra Cetkovska, while 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also went out, losing 6-3 6-3 to experienced fellow-Russian Nadia Petrova.

And that pair were joined on the sidelines by 31st seed Lucie Safarova, who lost 6-0 6-7 6-4 to fellow-Czech Klara Zakopalova.

Meanwhile, defending champion Serena Williams is safely through to the third round, but she was once again taken to three sets, this time by Romanian Simona Halep.

On Tuesday, the seventh-seeded American broke down in tears after her three-set first round victory over France's Aravane Rezai.

And although there were no tears this time around, Williams was far from her best, having to recover from dropping the opening set to defeat her teenage opponent 3-6 6-2 6-1.

"I'm hoping to get better as the event goes on," Williams told reporters. "It was really windy out there in the first set.

"I was tight and I told myself to relax more. I need to play longer matches and get more practice," she added.

Sixth seed Francesca Schiavone secured her place in the last 32 with a 7-5 6-3 win over Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova while another former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, seeded 18th, crushed Greece's Eleni Daniilidou 6-3 6-0 in under an hour.

Two-time grand slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, seeded 12th, cruised past Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru 6-0 6-2 and she will now face 19th-seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, who beat Anna Tatishvili of Georgia in three sets, for a last 16 place.

There were also straight sets wins for 16th seed Julia Goerges of Germany, Italian Flavia Pennetta, seeded 21st, 24th-seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova, 26th seed Maria Kirilenko of Russia and 27th-seeded Slovakian Jarmila Gadjosova.

Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)

No comments:

Post a Comment