Keep Your Eyes on Sabine

When I first saw Sabine Lisicki play, I was impressed by how well she hit the ball, but I also noted that there seemed to be lack of sufficient thought and control behind her ball-striking. She was young, and I hoped she would mature in her approach to the game.

This year in Charleston, I saw the Lisicki I wanted to see. She was still hitting the ball well, but she was no longer a slave to her own power. She served brilliantly, she befuddled opponents with her sharp forehand up the line, and she hit drop shots that would impress Patty Schnyder. Perhaps most impressive, apart from her serve, which she constantly varied, was her ability to establish a rhythm and then force her opponent to play within it.

On her way to the final, Lisicki defeated former Family Circle Cup champion Venus Williams, a player she had hoped would be in her draw because, she told her mother on the way to Charleston, “I think I can beat her.”

This was Lisicki’s tournament from start to finish. She played the piano, signed autographs, worked at the lawn bar, and won her matches with a relaxed attitude that demonstrated a significant change from her earlier days, when she appeared incapable of stringing together two wins. Seeded 16th, Lisicki made history at a tournament that already has more significant history than any other on the Tour.

Lisicki then went 2-0 in Fed Cup play over China, but what looked like a very exciting season was halted by unfortunate physical issues. She retired in the quarterfinals in Estoril because of a shoulder injury, then withdrew from Warsaw when she had to be hospitalized for severe abdominal pain. When she returned to the Tour, a shaky Lisicki went out in the first round of the French Open.

She lost in the first round in Eastbourne, too, but then surprised fans by reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, taking out Anna Chakvetadze, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Caroline Wozniacki along the way. She lost in three sets to Dinara Safina, and was clearly beset by nerves in her first major quarterfinal.

Lisicki’s shoulder then began bothering her again, and she withdrew from Prague in July. The next month, her shoulder injury caused her to retire in Los Angeles and withdraw from both Cincinnati and Toronto. In the second round of the U.S. Open, she held a match point against Anastasia Rodionova, and—in one of the tournament’s many bizarre moments—fell and twisted her ankle when Rodionova hit match point. Lisicki, who hit 39 winners and double-faulted ten times, was taken away in a wheelchair.

But that wasn’t the end of it: She also retired in the first round in Beijing because of a gastrointestinal illness. In October, however, she reached the final in Luxembourg, where she lost to Timea Bacsinzky. She failed, however, to reach the semifinals at the CommonwealthBank Tournament of Champions in Bali.

Injury and illness hurt all players, but for Lisicki, there is a significant vulnerability to regression when her rhythm is broken and she has to come back and face her own nerves. Ironically, much of the shakiness she demonstrates on these occasions involves her serve, which many consider to be her greatest strength.

If she can stay healthy, Lisicki should learn to slow things down and control her anxiety. When that occurs, she can once again demonstrate the effortless-appearing form she showed in Charleston. 2009 was a very up-and-down season for the talented young German, but there is every reason to keep your eyes on her in 2010.

Diane Elayne Dees publishes Women Who Serve, a blog about women’s professional tennis. Diane is a life-long fan of women’s tennis; her interest in the sport began when she first saw Evonne Goolagong play. Diane attends the Family Circle Cup in Charleston every year, and has a fondness for clay court tennis, which she developed while following the career of the great Chris Evert.