LONDON: The leading ladies have exited stage left but the understudies kept this most volatile of Wimbledon scripts bubbling along to ensure a new name will be engraved on the trophy come Saturday.
Emerging from a quarter-final line-up featuring women from eight different nations and with just two grand slam titles between them were Sabine Lisicki, Agnieszka Radwanska, Marion Bartoli and, most surprising of all, Belgian Kirsten Flipkens.
Lisicki beat unseeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-3 6-3 to prove that her shock victory over red-hot favorite Serena Williams was no flash in the pan.
Fourth seed Radwanska, last year’s runner-up, outlasted China’s Li Na in an absorbing three-set battle before the unorthodox Bartoli beat American upstart Sloane Stephens 6-4 7-5 and Belgian Flipkens reached her first grand slam semi-final by defeating 2011 champion Petra Kvitova in three sets.
Lisicki, trying to become Germany’s first grand slam singles champion since Steffi Graf in 1996, will take on fourth seed Radwanska on Thursday while Flipkens will play 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Bartoli.
After the demise of so many fancied players, opportunity is knocking loudly for one of them.
“It’s not exactly what we were planning on,” nine-times Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova told Reuters.
“But it’s the best opportunity ever for one of them. It’s great we’ll have a new champion and it just shows that this sport can be so unpredictable.
Navratilova picked out Lisicki as her tip for the title and the way the world No. 24 dismantled Kanepi a day after stunning five-times champion Williams the momentum appears to be with the big-serving German. (Reuters)