Liscki defeats No. 3 seed at Wimbledon

LONDON, June 23 (UPI) -- Sabine Lisicki eliminated third-seeded Li Na in three sets Thursday in second-round play at the Wimbledon Championships.

Lisicki recorded breaks in Li's last three service games -- twice with Li serving for the match -- in a 3-6, 6-4, 8-6 victory. Li had had a remarkable 2011 in major tournaments, having won the French Open after a runner-up finish at the Australian Open.

But she was unable to close out against Lisicki, who pounded out 17 aces and had three of her five breaks of the day in the match's final five games.

That match was under the roof of Center Court but the rest of Wimbledon was affected by intermittent rain, which caused a series of stoppages and postponements. Among matches pushed to Friday was world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki's second-round contest against Virginie Razzano.

Two-time defending champion Serena Williams advanced to the third round defeating Simona Halep 3-6, 6-2, 6-1. Williams faced one break point on the day -- it cost her the first set -- but was in control in the second and third sets.

Also, sixth-seeded Francesca Schiavone was a 7-5, 6-3 winner over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.

Joining Lisicki as the upset winners were Petra Cetkovska, who ousted 13th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; Nadia Petrova, who was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over No. 14 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova; and Klara Zakopalova, who eliminated 31st-seed Lucie Safarova 6-0, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4.

No. 12 Svetlana Kuznetsova ripped Alexandra Dulgheru 6-0, 6-2 and 16th-seeded Julia Georges stopped Mathilde Johansson 7-6 (12-10), 6-2 in gaining third-round slots.

Also advancing were 18th-seeded Ana Ivanovic, No. 19 Yanina Wickmayer, 21st-seeded Flavia Pennetta, 24th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, No. 26 Maria Kirilenko and 27th-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova.

Unseeded second-round winners included Kateryna Bondarenko, Misaki Doi and Tamira Paszek.