WIMBLEDON: French Open champion Li Na squandered two match points and lost in the second round of Wimbledon Thursday to German wild card Sabine Lisicki, the biggest upset of the tournament so far. The 62nd-ranked Lisicki erased both match points with service winners in the ninth game of the third set and beat the third-seeded Chinese player 3-6, 6-4, 8-6 under the roof on Center Court. Other winners on Day 4 included six-time champion Roger Federer, women's defending titlist Serena Williams and second-seeded Novak Djokovic. After Li hit a forehand long on Lisicki's third match point, the 21-year-old German fell to her knees at the baseline and put her head to the turf. She broke into tears at her courtside chair. “My emotions are so, I mean, just over the moon,” said Lisicki, who served 17 aces and had 32 winners. “It's just amazing.” Li was up 4-2 in the third set and twice served for the match but was broken each time. She had won 14 of her previous 15 Grand Slam matches in 2011, reaching the final at the Australian Open, then becoming China's first major singles champion at Roland Garros last month. Lisicki has now won 12 of her last 13 matches on grass, including reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2009 and winning a tuneup tournament in Birmingham this month. She missed five months last season with a left ankle injury, and she fell out of the top 200 in the rankings. “It was very, very hard,” she said. “I really had to start from zero after being on crutches for seven weeks so it just means so much to me, you know, winning the title in Birmingham and getting the wild card here. I appreciate it so much, to be back in Wimbledon. It's just a place that I love so much.” At 5-3 down in the third, Lisicki fell behind 15-40 on her serve and faced two match points. She came up with two service winners at more than 120mph (193kph) and two straight aces — including a 124mph (200kph) delivery, the fastest by any woman at Wimbledon this week. Li served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 but couldn't convert. Federer, playing the last match on Center Court, needed only 1 hour, 28 minutes to put away Adrian Mannarino of France, 6-2, 6-3 6-2. With his parents watching from the Royal Box, the third-seeded Swiss finished the match in style — soaring high in the air for a flying overhead smash. It was the first time Federer has played under the roof on the court where he has made his name as perhaps the greatest player of all time. Fans held up play by doing the wave before Federer served for the match. Earlier, defending champion Serena Williams recovered from a poor start to defeat Simona Halep 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 and move into the third round, staying on course for a fifth title. After dropping the first set, Serena regained her renowned intensity and powerful shot-making to dominate the rest of the way on Court 2. The winner of 13 Grand Slam singles titles is still searching for her form after a year-long absence because of injuries and health issues. “I'm just happy to be playing and hopefully I'll get better as the tournament goes on,” Serena said. “It was a little windy out there and I just was a little tight so I just got to relax and enjoy myself more.” Serena wasn't happy about playing out on Court 2, rather than Center Court or Court 1. Her sister, five-time champion Venus, played her first-round match on Court 2. Their two other matches were on Center Court. “They like to put us on Court 2, me and Venus, for whatever reason,” Serena said. “I haven't figured it out yet. Maybe one day we'll figure it out. I don't know.” In men's play, second-seeded Novak Djokovic swept into the third round by beating South Africa's Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 on Court 1. The Serb has won his opening two rounds in straight sets after his 43-match winning streak was ended by Roger Federer in the French Open semifinals. In a dramatic five-setter that lasted nearly four hours, No. 5 Robin Soderling came from two sets down to overcome 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt 6-7 (5), 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 in a second-round match played under the Center Court roof. A day after throwing his shoes in frustration, 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro won 18 of 23 games Thursday to reach the third round with a 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-0, 6-4 win over Olivier Rochus. At 6-foot-6 (1.98 meters), del Potro stood about a foot taller than his Belgian opponent. No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied for a 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (8) win over 20-year-old Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. The Frenchman jumped over the net and helped up his opponent in a sporting gesture after the deciding tiebreaker. No. 13 seed Viktor Troicki became the highest seeded man to go out so far, falling to Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4. Lu reached the quarterfinals last year.
