Lisicki fast becoming tennis household name

LONDON, July 3 (UPI) -- Sabine Lisicki goes for a third upset of a highly seeded player when she plays in her second Grand Slam semifinal.

Lisicki got a little attention when she defeated 14th-seeded Samantha Stosur in the third round at Wimbledon but really made waves when she took out world No. 1 Serena Williams in the fourth.

She followed that with a win Tuesday over Kaia Kanepi that earned Lisicki her second trip to the Wimbledon semifinals. She lost to Maria Sharapova in the 2011 semis when she'd been invited into the draw as a wild card.

Lisicki will go against fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in Thursday's semifinals. The other match that day sends 15th-seeded Marion Bartoli against No. 20-seed Kirsten Flipkens. The winners of those matches are to play Saturday. Whoever wins the women's singles final will have her first major tournament championship.

The way the tournament played out this year, with a series of early upsets and injuries costing the field several highly ranked players even before the first weekend, the four semifinalists have faced a total of five seeded players. Lisicki is the only one to have beaten two.

"Well, I know how it is to be in the semis," Lisicki said after Tuesday's quarterfinal win. "I know the different atmosphere and how it's starting to get empty in the locker room.

"But I'm glad that I had that experience before. I think this time I'm more ready. I feel much fresher, fitter, better than two years ago -- I'm hitting the ball well, moving well and just more ready.

"Agnieszka Radwanska plays a very smart game. She moves well around the court. She also was in the final last year, so she has a lot of confidence with that."

Radwanska lost in the finals at Wimbledon last year, falling to Williams in three sets, but she's never been past the quarterfinals in any other major. Her last three matches at Wimbledon all went three sets.

Bartoli, who is yet to drop a set in the tournament, played in the 2007 Wimbledon final, losing to Venus Williams. She has one other major tournament semifinal appearance (2011 French Open).

Flipkens didn't lose a set until the quarterfinals against eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova. She hadn't been beyond the third round of the Grand Slam event until this year's Australian Open and this is her first shot at a semifinal.