Wimbledon 2013: Talking points from Day 8

Can Lisicki maintain her consistency?

Sabine Lisicki

Although Radwanska is now my favorite, the bookmakers see the likable German as the favorite especially now that Petra Kvitova is out. And after backing up her very impressive performance against Serena Williams with an efficient beat down of Kaia Kanepi, you can understand why.

Lisicki has the biggest game of all the remaining women in the draw. She averages 77.5% points won on her first serve – excluding her match with Williams – and her return is proving to be a massive weapon. Who else could deconstruct Serena’s serve that way and her opening game break against Kanepi broke the Estonian’s heart after an eight minute war.

The only question mark about Lisicki for me is her consistency. It hasn’t been as bad as Kvitova’s over the past year, but she still has troughs in her game. Against Williams, after performing brilliantly against Serena, she reverted back to her ‘normal’ tour level self in the second set and half of the third.

With all due respect to Kanepi, she didn’t have the game to trouble Lisicki enough to put her under pressure. The women who have beaten her at Wimbledon previously are Maria Sharapova, Dinara Safina and Angelique Kerber, all women with big power games. And to be fair, none of the other women in the draw have that power either.

But I just have a feeling that if the pressure is on her, she’ll begin to crack. But if Lisicki can perform the way she has over the past two matches, then she has a really good chance of beating the wall like Radwanska and reach the final of Wimbledon for the first time in her career.