TENNIS in DEPTH.

Top seed Dinara Safina kept her hopes of a maiden Grand Slam title alive as she fought back to beat Wimbledon surprise package Sabine Lisicki.

The world number one came from a set down to triumph 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 6-1 and set up a semi-final meeting with defending champion Venus Williams. This match-up might do a lot to reinforce Serena’s claim that she is the ‘best’ player in the world. On today’s performance Safina was far from convincing and her match must go down as one of the worst quarter final games in Wimbledon history. Her only hope against Venus, is for Venus’s leg to cause her problems, but then she could probably beat Safina with just one leg anyway!

Some poor serving, particularly in the first set, threatened to undermine her efforts, but Safina dug in to end the hopes of the German teenager.

Three double faults in the third game of the match from Safina handed Lisicki the first break of serve and the Russian then missed a chance in the following game to hit straight back.

Bookmark It