Marion Bartoli, Sabine Lisicki Will Meet In Wimbledon Finals Saturday
Marion Bartoli and Sabine Lisicki will meet in the women’s finals for Wimbledon 2013 Saturday, and it could make for an exciting match. The tournament has been full of unexpected upsets and pratfalls this year, but the two opponents may be fairly evenly matched on the grass surface.
ESPN was enthusiastic about Marion Bartoli’s performance in the semi-finals against opponent Kirsten Flipkens. They described the match between No. 15 ranked women’s player Bartoli and No. 20 ranked Flipkens as “one of the most one-sided semifinals in recent years.”
Flipkens seemed to blame an injury for her poor showing. She told Sports Illustrated:
“I fell in the first set. Straightaway I didn’t feel anything, but I fell on my bad knee. At that moment I didn’t feel it, but a couple of games later I started to feel a really sharp pain like I had four weeks ago.”
Marion Bartoli’s aggressive play allowed her to dominate the match, which was over in an amazing 62 minutes. She crushed Flipkens 6-1, 6-2.
The match between Sabine Lisicki and Agnieszka Radwanska was much more of a roller coaster ride, with the advantage seeming to swerve back and forth between No. 24 seeded Lisicki and No. 4 Radwanska.
Just as Lisicki rallied to come from behind and put world No. 1 Serena Williams out of Wimbledon earlier, she eventually again pulled ahead to defeat Radwanska 6-2, 2-6, 9-7. The score itself tells much of the story of the outrageous back-and-forth between the two.
In previous meetings, Lisicki holds a three to one edge over Bartoli, but the split is much more even on lawn. In their two previous meetings on that surface, each player has triumphed once.
It will be the first time in the Wimbledon’s finals for Sabine Lisicki and a second try for the title for Marion Bartoli.
