Sabine Lisicki

Sabine Lisicki

Sabine Lisicki's game was built for grass: a low, skidding slice backhand and a serve that reached 210.8 km/h at Stanford in 2014, a women's record that stood for years. At Wimbledon 2013 she rode both to a first Grand Slam final, beating Serena Williams, then on a 34-match winning streak, in the fourth round before Marion Bartoli shut her out in straight sets. It capped three runs on that grass: a wildcard semifinal in 2011, a quarterfinal the year after at a career-high ranking of world No. 12, then the final itself.

The body rarely kept pace with the game. Ankle, back, shoulder, wrist and knee injuries broke up her twenties in pieces, and she never returned past that 2013 peak. She had a daughter in September 2024 and spent the time after working toward a comeback, delayed repeatedly by postpartum surgery, still weighing its shape rather than announcing an end. She has said she can picture retiring on grass, in Bad Homburg, the surface that made her, with 4 career titles behind her.