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Lisicki beats Pennetta in BNP Paribas Open

Xinhua, March 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sabine Lisicki defeated defending champion Flavia Pennetta after saving three match points in the third set on Thursday night to reach the semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open.

"It was obviously a close match throughout the entire match," Lisicki said to media. The 24th seed ended the title defence of Pennetta 6-4, 6-7, (3-7) 7-6 (7-4) in two hours, 40 minutes at Indian Wells, California.

The two players, who had never met on the WTA tour before, both started very well on serve conceding no break points until the eighth game when Lisicki went ahead. Flavia then immediately broke back. Receiving at 5-4, Lisicki managed the third consecutive break to win the set 6-4 when Pennetta hit a forehand long.

The German had the chance to end the match in the second set, but the Italian saved the match point. After Lisicki saved a break point in the following game, the set went into a tie-break. Pennetta dominated the tie-break to claim a 7-3 success.

In a tense third set, Pennetta forged three match points of her own at 5-4 in the decider before Lisicki fought back to claim victory in a tiebreaker.

"We played really well the third set both, and was a good fight until the last point. Everything happened tonight," Pennetta said.

Lisicki had 44 winners in the match, but also 71 unforced errors. She also had five aces, the final coming to close out the match, which lasted nearly three hours.

Pennetta hit 23 winners but 43 unforced errors on Thursday. The 15th seed was coming off an upset of second-ranked Maria Sharapova in the previous round.

"Tennis is like this," Pennetta said, "I'm happy about the match, but of course I am upset, because when you are there you want to win it," she said.

Lisicki will meet Jelena Jankovic who defeated Lesia Tsurenko earlier in the day in the first women's semifinal before Serena Williams, the top seed, meets Simona Halep. Endi