Sabine Lisicki

Sabine Lisicki

Lisicki at the 2011 Texas Tennis Open
Country	Germany
Residence	Bradenton, Florida, United States
Born	22 September 1989 (1989-09-22) Troisdorf, West Germany (now Germany)
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Turned pro	2006
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$1,944,318
Singles
Career record	185–112
Career titles	3 WTA, 2 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 15 (7 November 2011)
Current ranking	No. 15 (14 November 2011)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	4R (2012)
French Open	2R (2008, 2011)
Wimbledon	SF (2011)
US Open	4R (2011)
Doubles
Career record	34–22
Career titles	1 WTA, 0 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 44 (12 September 2011)
Current ranking	No. 45 (14 November 2011)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2010)
French Open	1R (2008)
Wimbledon	F (2011)
US Open	2R (2008, 2010)
Last updated on: 14 November 2011.

Sabine Lisicki (/lɨˈzɪki/; born 22 September 1989 in Troisdorf) is a German professional tennis player.

Lisicki has won three WTA singles tournaments in her career (one in 2009 and two in 2011) and one doubles tournament (in 2011). She reached the semifinals of the 2011 Wimbledon Championships and also reached the quarterfinals of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. She achieved her career high rank of World No. 15 on 7 November 2011. After struggling with injuries in 2010, Lisicki rebounded in 2011 and re-entered the top 100 of the world rankings. She is only the second player in Wimbledon history to make it to the semifinals while entering the tournament as a wildcard.

Career

Since 2004 Lisicki trained at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida, USA where she is sponsored and managed by IMG. She is coached by her father who studied sport science in Wrocław and Cologne.

Lisicki had a successful year in 2007 on the ITF circuit and climbed from World No. 497 to World No. 198 in the WTA rankings. She won two titles, one in Jersey and the other in Toronto, Canada. She defeated top-seed Katie O'Brien on 2 August 2007 at the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open.

In 2006, Lisicki competed at the 2006 Sunfeast Open – Singles Qualifying in Kolkata where she crushed Ragini Vimal 6–1, 6–0 in the first round, but lost in the qualifying round to Sanaa Bhambri of India.

2008

Lisicki at the 2008 US Open

At the 2008 Australian Open, Lisicki's first Grand Slam tournament, she defeated the number 16-seeded player, Dinara Safina and Mariya Koryttseva to reach the third round as a qualifier. She lost her third round match to Caroline Wozniacki. In the first round of Fed Cup against the United States, Lisicki defeated Lindsay Davenport in straight sets.

Lisicki next reached the fourth round of the Miami 2008 Sony Ericsson Open, a Tier I event, where she defeated sixth seeded Anna Chakvetadze in straight sets. However, she was beaten in the next round by Elena Dementieva.

At the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, Lisicki lost in the first round to the 2007 runner up and the number 11 seed Marion Bartoli.

In October, Lisicki reached her first WTA final at the Tashkent Open where she lost in three sets to fellow teenager Sorana Cîrstea of Romania.

2009

Lisicki started her year at the Hopman Cup in Perth where she advanced to the third round before losing to Dominika Cibulková in straight sets. At the Australian Open, Lisicki defeated the 30th seed Aleksandra Wozniak in the opening round before losing to Aussie Samantha Stosur in straight sets. She then took part in Germany's 3–2 win over Switzerland in their Fed Cup World Group II tie, defeating Timea Bacsinszky but losing to Patty Schnyder.

At the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Lisicki reached the semi-finals, defeating no. 3 seed Lucie Šafářová on the way before losing to eventual winner Victoria Azarenka. Lisicki then took part in the first Premier Mandatory tournament of the year in North America. At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, she lost in the first round to Elena Vesnina. At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, she lost in the second round to 26th seed Iveta Benešová.

During the clay-court season, Lisicki lost in the second round of the MPS Group Championships in Ponte Vedra Beach to eventual finalist and no. 5 seed Aleksandra Wozniak. On the green clay at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, Lisicki won her first WTA Tour title without dropping a set, defeating the 5th seed Caroline Wozniacki in the final. She had previously defeated 2nd seeded Venus Williams in the third round and no.6 seed Marion Bartoli in the semi-finals. She then took part in Germany's Fed Cup World Group play-off win against China. She defeated World No. 16 Zheng Jie in the first singles match, and partenered with Anna-Lena Grönefeld to win the decisive doubles match.

Lisicki advanced to the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart before losing to third-seeded Jelena Janković in straight sets. She then advanced to the quarter-finals at the Estoril Open in Portugal where she lost to compatriot Anna-Lena Grönefeld, retiring when 6–2 down. At the French Open, Lisicki lost to Lucie Šafářová in the first round.

On her first match on grass at the AEGON International in Eastbourne, Lisicki lost to Samantha Stosur in the first round. In doubles, Lisicki and her partner Ana Ivanović lost in the first round to World No. 1's Cara Black and Liezel Huber.

Lisicki at the 2009 Toray Pan Pacific Open

Lisicki played her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, where she was beaten by World No.1 Dinara Safina. To reach the quarter final, she had defeated Anna Chakvetadze in the first round, Patricia Mayr in the second round, the recent French Open champion and No. 5 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third round, and 9th seed Caroline Wozniacki in the 4th round.

Seeded 23rd, Lisicki advanced to the second round at the 2009 US Open, but lost to qualifier Anastasia Rodionova. On Rodionova's match point, Lisicki slipped while going to return a backhand and injured her left ankle. She left the court in a wheelchair as Rodionova advanced to the third round. Lisicki later reported that an MRI showed no tears. The injury was a sprain, and Lisicki returned to her base in Florida for rehabilitation.

Lisicki returned to the tour at the Toray Pan Pacific Open at the end of September, where she reached the second round, but losing in three sets to 7th seeded Jelena Janković.

In October, Lisicki reached the Final of Luxembourg, but lost there to Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland. On her way to the final she beat Iveta Benešová, Polona Hercog, Patty Schnyder and Shahar Pe'er.

Lisicki qualified for the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions. She lost her first round robin match to Aravane Rezaï, but won her second round robin match against Melinda Czink.

2010

Lisicki started the 2010 season by playing at the Hopman Cup for Germany. She won her singles ties against Elena Dementieva and Laura Robson but lost to Yaroslava Shvedova. Partnering with Philipp Kohlschreiber, they lost all their doubles matches, so Germany did not proceed to the finals.

Lisicki then travelled to Melbourne to compete in the Australian Open where she was the 21st seed. However she was defeated in the second round by Alberta Brianti in three sets. Her first tournament after the Australian Open was the Pattaya Open in Bangkok where she was the second seed. However, she lost her second round match to home player Tamarine Tanasugarn.

She then went to Dubai to compete in the Dubai Tennis Championships. She lost her second round match against Venus Williams.

Her next two tournaments were at Indian Wells and Miami. In both tournaments, Lisicki retired in the second round because of an ankle injury. The injury sidelined her for five months, and she withdrew from tournaments at Ponte Vedra and Charleston. She also missed the Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

Coming into the 2010 US Open ranked world number 96, Lisicki advanced to the second round before losing to 7th seeded Vera Zvonareva.

After the US Open, Lisicki failed to qualify for the Luxembourg Open leading to her dropping out of the top 100.

2011

Lisicki serving in August 2011

Lisicki started the 2011 season at the ASB Classic in Auckland. She lost to Yanina Wickmayer in three sets in the second round. In the Australian Open, Sabine played the qualifying tournament and lost in the second round to Vesna Manasieva 7–6, 6–4.

After losing at 2011 BNP Paribas Open to Sorana Cîrstea in the qualifying rounds, Lisicki lifted her form and reached the third round at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open, where she was defeated by Maria Sharapova.

At the 2011 Family Circle Cup, Lisicki reached the third round, but lost to Sania Mirza in two sets.

At the 2011 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Lisicki lost in the third round against her compatriot Julia Görges, eventual champion of the tournament. In doubles, Lisicki partnered with former world no. 1 doubles player Samantha Stosur to win her first ever career doubles title.

At the 2011 French Open, she advanced to the second round against the number three seed, Vera Zvonareva. Lisicki had a match point at 5–2 of the third set, but she lost the point and eventually the match, 4–6, 7–5, 7–5. Afterwards, she lay on the court, sobbing, and was taken off on a stretcher due to injury.

At the 2011 AEGON Classic, Lisicki reached the final where she defeated Slovak Daniela Hantuchová in 6–3, 6–2, to win her second WTA Tour title.

At the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, Lisicki received a wildcard to enter the tournament, advancing to the semifinals of a major for the first time, and beating third seed and recent French Open champion Li Na in the second round. She was eliminated by Maria Sharapova in straight sets 4–6, 3–6 after leading the first set 3–0. This is the first time in 12 years that a German woman (since Steffi Graf reached the Wimbledon finals in 1999) has reached the semifinal stage of a Grand Slam. Lisicki is the second wild-card entry to reach the women's semifinals in Wimbledon history. In doubles, Lisicki partnered with Samantha Stosur and lost in the final 6–3, 6–1.

At the 2011 Bank of the West Classic, Lisicki beat 4th seed and doubles partner Samantha Stosur and 5th seed Agnieszka Radwanska, but fell to Serena Williams in the semifinals 1–6, 2–6.

At 2011 Western & Southern Open Lisicki lost to Shahar Pe'er in the first round 4–6, 6–7 despite being 5–0 down in the second set.

Lisicki then traveled to Dallas to compete in the inaugural 2011 Texas Tennis Open as the 5th seed. After advancing to the semifinals with an easy win over qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko, she crushed 8th seed Irina-Camelia Begu 6–0, 6–1 to advance to the final. Sabine won her 3rd title, defeating qualifier Aravane Rezaï, having dropped no more than three games each match of the way to her victory. She will move to a new career-high rank of No. 18 on August 29th.

Seeded 22nd at the 2011 US Open, she easily advanced to the second round with a straight-sets win over Alona Bondarenko. She was scheduled to play Venus Williams in the second round, but Williams withdrew before it started due to her recent diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome. Lisicki dispatched Irina Falconi 6–0, 6–1 to advance to the fourth round for the first time, before ultimately being defeated by second seed Vera Zvonareva 2–6, 3–6.

At the China Open Liscki defeated Zheng Saisai in straight sets but withdrew from her second round match against Kaia Kanepi.

Lisicki was named the WTA comeback player of the year in November.

2012

Lisicki's first tournament in 2012 was the 2012 ASB Classic Tournament where she was the number 1 seed. In the first round, she defeated Virginie Razzano 6–4, 6–4. In the second round, she defeated Mona Barthel 7–6, 3–6, 6–3. In the quarter-final, she faced Angelique Kerber, 2011 US Open semi-finalist, and was losing 4–6, before retiring, due to a back injury, in the second set at a score of 3–4. Then she entered the 2012 Apia International Sydney where she was unseeded. Before the first round of the tournament began, she pulled out with her recent back injury and gave her place to Lucky Loser, Alexandra Dulgheru.

She competed in the Australian Open where she was the fourteenth seed. In the first round, she faced Swiss Stefanie Vögele and beat her 6–2, 4–6, 6–4. In the second round, she deafeated Shahar Pe'er 6–1, 6–2. In the third round, she beat eighteenth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. She was defeated by Russian Maria Sharapova 6-3 2-6 3-6. Lisiki stormed to a first set lead winning 6 games in a row but Sharapova once again over came her to progress to the quarter-finals.

Personal Life

Her parents emigrated to West Germany from Poland in 1979; her father, Dr. Richard Lisicki, is of German and Polish descent, and her mother, Elisabeth, of Polish. Her father is her coach and her mother, Elizabeth, is a painter specializing in ceramics. She started playing at the age of 7, (introduced by her father). Lisicki currently lives in Bradenton, Florida. She is fluent in German, English and Polish. Her off-court interests include reading, music and athletics. Her favorite book is Lance Armstrong's autobiography and her favorite music is pop and R&B.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	2011	Wimbledon	Grass	Samantha Stosur	Květa Peschke Katarina Srebotnik	3–6, 1–6

Career finals

Singles finals: 5 (3–2)

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
WTA Tour Championships (0–0)
Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0)
Premier (1–0)
International (2–2)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
Runner-up	1.	5 October 2008	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Hard	Sorana Cîrstea	6–2, 4–6, 6–7(4–7)
Winner	2.	19 April 2009	Charleston, United States	Green Clay	Caroline Wozniacki	6–2, 6–4
Runner-up	3.	22 October 2009	Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Hard (i)	Timea Bacsinszky	2–6, 5–7
Winner	4.	13 June 2011	Birmingham, United Kingdom	Grass	Daniela Hantuchová	6–3, 6–2
Winner	5.	27 August 2011	Dallas, United States	Hard	Aravane Rezaï	6–2, 6–1

Doubles finals: 2 (1–1)

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–1)
WTA Tour Championships (0–0)
Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0)
Premier (1–0)
International (0–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	24 April 2011	Stuttgart, Germany	Clay (i)	Samantha Stosur	Jasmin Wöhr Kristina Barrois	6–1, 7–6(7–5)
Runner-up	1.	2 July 2011	Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom	Grass	Samantha Stosur	Květa Peschke Katarina Srebotnik	3–6, 1–6

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. Only Main Draw results in WTA Tour are considered. This table is current through the 2011 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions.

Tournament	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	SR	W–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	3R	2R	2R	LQ	4R	0 / 4	7–4
French Open	A	A	2R	1R	A	2R		0 / 3	2–3
Wimbledon	A	A	1R	QF	A	SF		0 / 3	9–3
US Open	A	A	2R	2R	2R	4R		0 / 4	5–4
Win–Loss	0–0	0–0	4–4	6–4	1–1	8–3	3–1	0 / 14	23–14
Year-End Championship
WTA Tour Championships	A	A	A	A	A	A		0 / 0	0–0
Tournament of Champions	Not Held			A	A	4th		0 / 1	1–1
WTA Premier Mandatory Tournaments
Indian Wells	A	A	1R	1R	2R	LQ		0 / 3	0–3
Key Biscayne	LQ	A	4R	2R	2R	3R		0 / 4	6–4
Madrid	NH			A	A	A		0 / 0	0–0
Beijing	NTI			1R	A	2R		0 / 2	1–1
WTA Premier 5 Tournaments
Dubai	NTI			A	2R	A		0 / 1	1–1
Rome	A	A	A	A	A	A		0 / 0	0–0
Cincinnati	NTI			A	1R	1R		0 / 2	0–2
Montreal/Toronto	A	A	1R	A	A	A		0 / 1	0–1
Tokyo	A	A	A	2R	A	A		0 / 1	1–1
Career Statistics
Tournaments	1	1	18	18	9	15	2	63
Titles–Runner-ups	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–1	0–0	2–0	0–0	3 / 63	3–2
Hardcourt Win–Loss	0–0	0–0	15–13	16–12	4–8	18–8	5–2	1 / 44	57–41
Clay Win–Loss	0–1	0–1	2–4	11–4	0–0	6–3	0–0	1 / 13	19–13
Grass Win–Loss	0–0	0–0	0–2	4–2	0–0	11–1	0–0	1 / 5	15–5
Carpet Win–Loss	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	0 / 2	0–2
Overall Win–Loss	0–1	0–1	17–20	31–18	4–9	35–12	5–2	3 / 64	92–63
Win %	0%	0%	46%	63%	36%	77%	71%	59.35%
Year-End ranking	497	237	54	23	179	15

External links

• Sabine Lisicki at the Women's Tennis Association
• Sabine Lisicki at the International Tennis Federation
• Sabine Lisicki at the Fed Cup
• Official website
• Official Fanpage

Awards
Preceded by Justine Henin	WTA Comeback Player of the Year 2011	Succeeded by Incumbent