Third seed Sabine Lisicki battled past young Pole Magda Linette to reach the second round in Kuala Lumpur with a 6-4, 7-6 (5) opening round win at the BMW Malaysian Open. The former Wimbledon finalist will next play Czech qualifier Barbora Krejcikova in the second round.
Lisicki Fights Through Tricky Opening Set
Both Lisicki and Linette held serve with relative ease to open the match to get to 1-1. The Pole then held serve to love, putting pressure back on Lisicki to hold her serve. The young Pole then broke Lisicki in emphatic fashion, taking a 3-1 advantage. The 2013 Wimbledon champion responded immediately, breaking back, to bring the match to 3-2. The German, who holds the record for fastest serve on the WTA Tour and most aces in a match, then held serve dominantly to level the match at 3-3. In the next game, Linette fended off three break points to hold serve in a lengthy deuce game. Lisicki then held again in quick fashion, bringing the set to 4-4. The German then gained the crucial break to go up 5-4, giving herself the chance to serve for the set. With one of the biggest serves in women's tennis, Lisicki made no mistake as she closed out the set at 6-4.
Lisicki Seals The Deal In The Second
In the opening game of the set, Lisicki broke Linette, going up an early one break lead. Both players then held three times each to bring the set to 4-3 with the German still up a break. With Lisicki serving, the young Pole broke the big server at-love to even the set at 4-4. Linette then held her own serve at-love, putting the pressure on the German to stay in the set. Lisicki held serve as the set advanced to 5-5. In a crucial eleventh game, the German broke to give herself the chance to serve out the match. With her back against the wall, Linette responded by breaking Lisicki's serve to bring the set to a tiebreak.
The Pole held serve to open the tiebreak. Lisicki then held her first service point, but was broken in the next, going down by the mini break at 2-1. Linette held both her service points to go up 4-1, putting the pressure on Lisicki to keep herself in the breaker. Linette would break the German again to go up 5-1, before Lisicki held her next service point to bring the tiebreak to 5-2. The German responded in signature fashion by breaking both of Linette's service points to claw back to 5-4. Lisicki then held both her service points, setting up a match point at 6-5 on Linette's serve. The former Wimbledon finalist made no mistake, closing out the match on her first opportunity 6-4, 7-6 (5) to advance to the second round.
Lisicki Discusses The Win
"She's a tough opponent, especially for the first round, because she gets a lot of balls back," Lisicki said about Linette. "She started pretty well and I think I needed to get my rhythm. Very tough conditions - very hot and humid - so I'm happy to be through in straight sets."
"You always have some ups and downs and I was very happy that I was able to play well from 2-5 in the tie-break," the German added. "I missed quite a few easy balls [earlier] but the most important thing is that I kept my concentration and got five points in a row - which is not the usual thing!"
"I usually get used to the heat pretty quickly and I like it when it's hot and humid - but here it's a little bit extreme. It's good preparation and I'll try and get as many matches as possible and see how far I can go," said Lisicki.
Lisicki Behind The Numbers
The big serving German served well, cracking five aces and making 62 percent of her first serves. Lisicki won 79 percent of her first serve points, but had an extremely low 31 percent of her second serve points won. Overall, Lisicki's dominance on first serve made up for her poor performance on the second, helping her to the straight sets win.
Up Next For Lisicki
Up next for the 31st ranked player on the WTA Tour is Czech qualifier Barbora Krejcikova. Lisicki, who lost in the first round last year in Kuala Lumpur, has never met Krejcikova. The Czech qualifier is playing her first tour level event of the season. Krejcikova clawed past Yafan Wang in three sets to reach the second round in Kuala Lumpur. Lisicki will be looking to build some much needed momentum this season, after struggling much of the first two months of the year. She has just three wins total in 2016. Lisicki and Krejcikova will most likely play Wednesday, with the remainder of first round action being played tomorrow in the Malaysian capital.