Lisicki stuns Venus in Charleston

Eurosport - Fri, 17 Apr 11:15:00 2009

Second seed Venus Williams tumbled out of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, succumbing 6-4 7-6 to Germany's Sabine Lisicki in the third round.

TENNIS 2009 WTA Charleston Lisicki S. - Williams V. Lisicki celebrates third-round win over Venus Williams - 0

The American, who had to battle the previous day before beating Indian Sania Mirza in three sets, lost the match in 87 minutes after the 16th-seeded German took the tie-break 7-5.

Williams, champion in 2004, had never previously played Lisicki, who came from behind in both sets to seal her upset victory.

"I'll try to come back next year and win," world number five Williams said. "I made some mistakes at the wrong time and she played some great shots."

In another upset on the stadium court, Hungarian left-hander Melinda Czink eliminated fourth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova 3-6 6-4 7-5 in a marathon battle lasting just over two and a quarter hours.

Top-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva swept aside American Varvara Lepchenko 6-1 6-1 and fifth-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki beat China's Peng Shuai, the 10th seed, 6-3 6-4.

Sixth-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli booked her place in the last eight with a 6-4 6-1 demolition of American Melanie Oudin while seventh-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia recovered to beat Russian Anastasia Rodionova 6-7 6-2 6-3.

Elena Vesnina beat Viktoriya Kutuzova in straight sets 7-6, 7-5 while Virginie Razzano advanced when third-seeded Vera Zvonareva retired after just two games.

Watch live coverage of the quarter-finals from 6pm on your PC via the Eurosport player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe. Or watch the action on British Eurosport - available in the UK on Sky channel 410 and Virgin Media channel 521

Reuters

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  1. Yes Sanchez, we agree :-) except that Myskina had­ "the balls" ;-)
    He he !

    From Igor K, on Fri 17 Apr 9:38AM

  2. if anyone comes back at all, i would prefer anastasia­ myskina, she had the balls to get to the very top and I­ thought she should have mixed it more with the­ williamses like justine did, although at the price of­ her health.

    From sanchez.santos, on Fri 17 Apr 8:59AM

  3. Igor K you do know your tennis, sadly the williams era­ is indeed coming to an end. but that is the natural­ order of anything in life. they will be 29 and 28 this­ year. Sabine is 20 and has the same attributes as them,­ vika is 19, caroline is 18, ana is 21, they are all­ highly talented girls and will make an unstoppable push­ to the top this season. All those who shout for past­ champions to come back are missing the point. The kids­ have arrived, justine, kim, maria and the­ williams's have had their day and CAN NOT dominate­ as before, although of course their talent and­ experience will still win them a couple of slams here­ and there but they cant be no. 1 anymore. the changing­ of the guards is happening this season. the real losers­ are the russian girls who produced a flurry of highly­ talented tennis girls over the last decade and yet,­ none got to no. 1 apart from the undeserving dinara­ next monday. I think the williams girls are smart­ enough to recognize this and have long accepted it.

    From sanchez.santos, on Fri 17 Apr 8:54AM

  4. Richmc23[1]
    Your comment sound so condescending. Are u­ just finding out that the Williams Sisters doesn't­ perform great on clay? Please don't answer my­ rhetorical question. If u feel great 'cause of­ their poor performance on clay then go ahead and have­ your moment cause i'm sure u know that the Sister­ can't be touched on grass and hard courts. Clay is­ the only chance players have to beat the Williams­ Sisters while they are injury-free. Majority of­ Serena's defeat by the hands of J. Henin came on­ clay. Anyway, i can't wait to see the clay season­ pass by. I'm waiting for the real tennis of hard­ court and grass. Go Williams Sisters!

    From Chukwuemeka, on Fri 17 Apr 8:16AM

  5. Ah don’t be so critical.. world ends if someone beat­ Williams sisters, or tennis world ?! common ! It’s more­ exciting and intriguing to watch without someone’s­ dominance.., you hae to understand, not only Williams­ are training, not only them are talented.. they are not­ super humans and time will show this more and more..­ you have bunch of very quality girls who only lack­ consistency in top 20 or 30 or even more. They are­ mostly great hitters, an servers, also stong, and­ mostly faster then Williams.
    Yet Williams are the­ legends.. but it’s better not to have such domination. ­ Obviously sisters can not dominate like before. I doubt­ Sharapova can do something more if she is back, also­ Kim Klisters.. battle in top ten is more exiting then­ ever :-) Their comeback will make it even more exiting,­ but they will not dominate.. no way !

    From Igor K, on Fri 17 Apr 8:03AM

  6. Sabine was brilliant, she outplayed, outclassed and­ demolished Venus. All you loud mouthed Williams fans­ take note. The Dynamic Duo is becoming the Dismantled­ Duo. These youngsters have no respect for the Seniors­ on the Tour. Well Done Sabine.

    From Phil, on Fri 17 Apr 7:49AM

  7. Venus did not play well on the green clay. Venus was­ too tentative and afraid to slide and/or fall, and­ Lisicki was the beneficiary of her poor game. However,­ Lisicki's serve is awesome.

    I hope that Venus­ hires a clay court specialist to train her before­ Roland Garros. Get 'em Venus and Serena! Luv all­ ya'll Williams Family!

    From Truthsayer, on Fri 17 Apr 4:57AM

  8. Have seen the match. Venus is so shameful she is­ playing as if she is using a frying pan or planks of­ plywood to hit her ball. She can forget about winning­ Madrid and Roland Garros if she plays like this.

    From love_my_won_bin, on Fri 17 Apr 3:35AM

  9. OUCH!!! that hurts!!!
    (unless you're Sabine!!!!!)

    From jay, on Fri 17 Apr 1:39AM

  10. u win some and u lose some, it's Tennis!­ There's always Wimbledon for my Venus and then­ some, she made the errors and she's moved on

    From Vic M, on Fri 17 Apr 1:36AM

  11. Oh no, another casualty. Unfortunately, no-one is­ suprised. A huge cloud is hanging over the woman's­ tour at the moment and it does not seem to be shifting­ at all. To be honest its getting ambarrasing; everytime­ the tv is on the men's tour is sublime and the­ women's is just utter mediocrity. I bet evertime­ Henin sees a match she starts kicking herself because­ of the lack of quality. Hurry up Sharapova!

    From patchthetwat, on Fri 17 Apr 1:06AM

  12. Looks like Williams' diffuser isn't such a­ great advantage after all...

    From Chemical Ali, on Thu 16 Apr 11:58PM
  13. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    The end of women tennis is near. if the Williams exits­ the circuit, women tennis will never be the same­ again. These girls are mortal and it takes time to­ decline.. Well done venus.. everyone will like a­ history cake through their encounter with the sport­ great like Serena and venus.. I hope safina takes the­ mantle from Serena and show she can win slams. The­ russian squard will now dominate.. For the Williams­ sisters there is nothing more they can prove.. they­ have raised the standard, finished the race and now the­ crown...

    From Augustine A, on Thu 16 Apr 11:55PM

  14. Sabine played amazing. Well done to her.

    From FergusO, on Thu 16 Apr 11:16PM

  15. Ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha. Ha.

    Funny... looks a bit­ like Attaha written like that. Another loser.

    Well­ done, Sabine. Great to see young talent coming through­ and beating what Williams fans consider to be the­ Messiah. Cue Attaha and others jumping to Venus'­ defence with comments of injury and weather conditions.

    From richmc23, on Thu 16 Apr 10:43PM
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