Stuttgart – Former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki was jeered off court by parts of a German home crowd after being humiliated 6-0, 6-0 by Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas in the first round of the Porsche Grand Prix.
The 32nd-ranked Diyas took just 64 minutes to complete the double bagel against 19th-ranked Lisicki, whose 32 unforced errors included seven double faults, four in her first two service games.
“I guess I had a blackout. I guess it happens. Somehow I have to stay positive, there are more tournaments to come,” the shell-shocked
Lisicki said.
The 2011 champion Julia Goerges also went out, wasting three match points in a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 loss to rising Swiss Belinda Bencic in a marathon lasting two hours and 40 minutes.
But Angelique Kerber kept the German flag flying, winning 6-2, 7-5 over American lucky loser Alexa Glatch.
Italy’s Sara Errani ousted another ex-finalist at Wimbledon, seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4, in a match featuring 17 breaks of serve.
Second seed Simona Halep meanwhile got a monkey off her back when she beat Spain’s Garbine Muguruza for the first time in three meetings in the first second-round match, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 shortly before midnight.
Out-of-sorts Lisicki was far from the form that led her into the Indian Wells semi-finals last month. Her only chance to come back was when she had two break points in the third game of the second set.
The 2013 Wimbledon runner-up was coming off a weekend Fed Cup semi-final in Russia in which she wasted a match point in her singles against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and also lost the deciding doubles rubber together with Andrea Petkovic in Germany’s 3-2 defeat.
“I tried until the end. I am disappointed and feel sorry for everyone,” Lisicki said. “I wish the Fed Cup was a week earlier, but that doesn’t explain it.”
Diyas said: “It was a tough match even if the score looked easy. I stayed focused and tried to attack her second serve.”
Goerges, a former top 20 player now placed 64th, fired a dozen aces as she saved a staggering 21 of 27 break points from the 34th-ranked Bencic but then wasted three match points at 5-4 on Bencic’s serve and never got on the scoreboard again as the Swiss rallied.
“It wasn’t all about the match points. I completely lost control and momentum in the second set,” Goerges said.
Kerber, a recent winner in Charleston, beat the 201st-ranked Glatch who had only replaced injured Yuliya Beygelzimer on short notice.
Glatch offered stiff resistance in the second set before losing on third match point after Kerber got the deciding break for 7-5.
“I only heard three hours before the match I had a different opponent. It wasn’t easy but I made the most of it. I am glad to be
in the next round,” Kerber said. There she runs into three-time reigning champion and top seed Maria Sharapova but is not scared, having won their last match at Wimbledon 2014.
“I will have to give it my best from the first point onwards. But I have always done quite well against her,” Kerber said. – DPA-ANA