London 2012 Olympic Tennis 3rd Round: Sharapova v Lisicki

Sharapova (Russia) v Lisicki (Germany)

It seemed ironic that the last time both of us were at Wimbledon, it was on court 1, on a windy and sometimes rainy day, watching Sharapova and Lisicki.

On that occasion, Lisicki dominated Sharapova and went into the Quarterfinals.

The game started with holds all round, and Lisicki was having to dig deep to hold.

She finally got the break at 4/3 which saw Maria slamming her racquet to the ground.

But Sabine, serving for the first set, threw in a costly DF, and was subsequently broken to love.

What was noticeable was how low Sabine was getting down to shots and between them they took the first set to a tiebreak.

The tiebreak had it all, unforced errors, and then blistering serving from Lisicki, Sharapova forgetting to change ends and a daring squash-shot slap from Sabine to draw level at 8/8.

Sabine eventually took the tiebreak 10/8.

My friend had to leave to watch Beach Volleyball, so I met up with another friend who was a Games Maker at Wimbledon, so she joined me to watch the final set, as we got to the court just as Maria took the second set.

The light was beginning to fade, and started with trading breaks.

It would depend very much on who would blink first, and that was Sharapova who took the lead t 5/3, serving out to advance.