Top seed Sharapova knocked out by Lisicki

Tuesday, 3 July 2012 01:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

LONDON (Reuters): Maria Sharapova’s hopes of winning a second Wimbledon title were shattered on Monday as the world number one was comprehensively beaten 6-4 6-3 by Germany’s Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round.

The world number 15 had top seed Sharapova on the back foot early in the first set, forcing her into a string of uncharacteristic errors, and did not let up until she had gained revenge for her semi-final defeat by the Russian last year.

Lisicki, who had complained about her second-round opponent Bojana Jovanovski’s grunting, was forced to endure Sharapova’s loud wails, but kept her concentration to break the French Open champion decisively in the 10th game of the first set.

She broke again early in the second and closed it out, converting her third match point with an ace, to set up a quarter-final against either Belgium’s Kim Clijsters or German Angelique Kerber.