Serena Williams, winner of 34-consecutive matches heading into Wimbledon's Round of 16, was upset by Germany's Sabine Lisicki in 3 sets early Monday morning.
Cruising past Kimiko Date-Krumm in her previous match, the 2013 French Open winner looked unbeatable as she continued to put opponents away on a consistent basis while doing so in dominant fashion. Dropping the first set to her Round of 16 opponent the next time out however, the 31-year-old 16-time Grand Slam champion knew the road to a sixth Wimbledon championship would be a lot tougher.
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The 23-year-old Troisdorf, West Germany native was brilliant in the opening set, limiting the strength and finesse of the defending Wimbledon champion. Closing out Williams 6-2 to take a 1-0 lead, Lisicki was on the verge of doing something no one has been able to do in 34-consecutive meetings against the world's best player. Though early success seemed to come rather easily, the task of upsetting Serena Williams would not be as easy as the first set might have indicated.
Showing her tremendous grit and determination, the five-time tournament champion came back to tie the match in dominant fashion, closing out the second frame 6-1. Looking comfortable on serve while displaying her usual forehand and backhand strength, Serena Williams re-gained match momentum heading into the third and final set.
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Fans at Wimbledon have long been known to root heavily for previous champions and while Serena Williams surely had a significant level of support heading into the final frame, Sabine Lisicki had her fair share of fan praise as well, setting up one of the most entertaining finishes in tennis this season.
Serena took the opening game in the third set after holding serve to take the early advantage and after breaking her German opponent in the second game, Williams looked like she finally had the match under control. Taking what seemed to be a commanding 3-0 lead after holding serve once again, Williams was now 3 games away from moving onto the 2013 Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Finally winning a game on serve, Lisicki was able to get on the board in the fourth game and then breaking Serena during the next slate, the 23-year-old was all of a sudden back to within striking distance. The two exchanged breaks in each of the next 2 games and with Williams leading 4-3 in the third, Lisicki remained poised throughout multiple deuce points, eventually evening the set at four-all.
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Lisicki broke Williams once again to take a 5-4 lead and after 4 deuce points in the final game of the set, Lisicki ended the 34-match win streak of Serena Williams with a 6-4 final frame victory.
Full of obvious emotion after defeating one of the best players the game of tennis has ever seen, Sabine Lisicki will now begin preparations for her quarterfinal match-up with Kaia Kanepi, who disposed of Laura Robson in the Round of 16.
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