Wimbledon 2012: Angelique Kerber triumphs in all-German quarter-final

Sabine Lisicki, the great entertainer of women's tennis, will wonder how she let her quarter-final slip away. Having recovered from a terrible start against Angelique Kerber which saw her go a set and a break down, she had fought back with such vigour that by the end of the third set she found herself serving for the match at 5-3 up with the prospect of a second successive Wimbledon semi-final four points away. Four games later Lisicki was out. In the battle of the Germans on Centre Court it was Kerber, the eighth and senior seed, who held her nerve to win a raucous match 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 and reach her first semi-final here, where she will play Agnieszka Radwanska. "It was a very tough match," said Kerber, who appeared to spend much of the third set in a daze. "I don't know what to say because Sabine played unbelievable in the third set. I had no chance against her in some games because she served very well. I had no plan. I didn't know what to do in the third set. I think that's why I looked like this." After knocking out the world No1 and top seed, Maria Sharapova, on Monday Lisicki might have been expected to win but Kerber had beaten her fellow German in all four of their previous encounters and had been ruthless in defeating Kim Clijsters 6-1, 6-1 in the previous round. Kerber was not here to be Lisicki's patsy. She broke in the first game with a fine forehand pass and took the set in 32 minutes when Lisicki double-faulted. Lisicki, the 15th seed, is an odd player. When she is on a hot streak, few can contain her but, when she misses, it is as if she is on a one-woman mission to render HawkEye obsolete. On Tuesday she managed an eye-watering 50 unforced errors, most of them with her rickety backhand. When Kerber broke early in the second set, it seemed she was on her way to a routine victory. Then, out of nowhere, Lisicki exploded into life. Shots that had previously been troubling only the line judges flew in and suddenly Kerber had a genuine contest on her hands. At 5-4 she nonetheless had two match points, only for Lisicki to save the second with some extraordinary defensive play and a deft touch at the net. The set went to a tie-break and by now this was turning into something special, not least when Lisicki won a point with an audacious shot reminiscent of an Andrew Strauss slog sweep, kneeling down and flicking a glorious backhand past Kerber. Lisicki saved a third match point and then won the set with a forehand on to the line which was inexplicably left by Kerber. The set had lasted 66 minutes. Four breaks of serve, two each, followed in the first six games of the third. Finally, at long last, Lisicki thought she had made the decisive breakthrough when she went to 5-3. "In my mind, it was just, try fighting, play point by point and maybe it will change," said Kerber. "Because I know you need to play tennis until the last point." Lisicki needed only four of them but she would not win another game.