TENNIS/Women's quarter-finals:Maria Sharapova set up an eye-catching Wimbledon semi-final against wild card Sabine Lisicki and admitted it felt great to be in contention again.
Russian Sharapova explained how the path to her first semi-final since 2006 has been hampered by setbacks.
The 2004 champion lost form and fitness following a flurry of success early in her career and is only operating at full throttle once again thanks to shoulder surgery.
A last-four appearance in the recent French Open suggested the 24-year-old was back on track and she confirmed that by hammering Dominika Cibulkova 6-1 6-1 in 59 minutes today. Sharapova will next tackle Lisicki in the last four on Thursday.
“I would have loved for it not to have taken this long but I’m not complaining,” Sharapova said, reflecting on her barren Wimbledon run.
“It’s the road that you take. It’s not always straight. There are a lot of zigzags. A lot of the time you feel like it’s a dead end. You have to turn around and have a few other options. The navigation is not always correct.
“I’ve worked really hard to get to this stage, but I’m not saying this is where I want to end. I want to keep going.”
Sharapova’s win was built on six successive breaks of serve, with Cibulkova, Caroline Wozniacki’s conqueror, unable to replicate her performance of yesterday.
“I played well against someone that I lost to little over a month ago on clay in two sets, so I knew that she was capable of playing good tennis,” Sharapova said. “I played really solid and did the right things to win.”
Lisicki became the first German woman since seven-time champion Steffi Graf 12 years ago to reach the semi-finals after downing Marion Bartoli 6-4 6-7 (4/7) 6-1.
The 21-year-old did it the hard way, blowing three match points and going on to lose the second set before recovering impressively to triumph against a player who ran out of energy.
This time last year Lisicki was on crutches with an ankle injury that was misdiagnosed and kept her out for five months. She would have had to go through qualifying for Wimbledon had she not won the warm-up tournament in Birmingham and consequently been awarded her wild card.
“It just feels amazing to be in the semi-finals, especially after all I went through,” said Lisicki. “It’s also great for German tennis to have great girls. It’s not only me.”
Petra Kvitova reached the semi-finals for a second successive year after dispatching Tsvetana Pironkova 6-3 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.
Their Court One showdown was delayed by three-and-a-half hours because of rain and Kvitova was in no mood to waste any further time as she started like a freight train. But she fell apart in the second set and fared little better in the tie break against the tenacious and athletic 32nd seed from Bulgaria, who snapped at her heels throughout.
Pironkova had looked so impressive in ousting Venus Williams yesterday and she showed flashes of that form today, before being outclassed in the deciding set.
Kvitova, the powerful eighth seed from the Czech Republic, will face fourth seed Victoria Azarenka, who overpowered Austrian Tamira Paszek in straight sets 6-3 6-1 in the final match of the day.