Wimbledon 2013 results: Marion Bartoli dominates mistake-prone Sabine Lisicki in women’s final

Marion Bartoli didn’t lose a set heading into the women’s final at Wimbledon on Saturday and she finished the day with that mark intact, beating Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 6-4 to take this year’s championship. Bartoli was too much for Lisicki, who didn’t do herself any favors with multiple errors and double faults.

Lisicki couldn’t keep her first serve accurate, and her second serve was her undoing, often immediately going on the defensive regardless of serve, and generally hitting shots long when having to scramble across the court. Bartoli simply played sound tennis and let Lisicki beat herself en route to her first Grand Slam championship in 47 appearances.

Lisicki got things started off the right way in the first set with a double break point opportunity on Bartoli’s serve. She eventually earned that break and the match looked like it would be a close one. Unfortunately for Lisicki, Bartoli broke back immediately, and held from there.

Bartoli often put Lisicki on the defensive regardless of who was serving, forcing Lisicki to play at the front of the net, where she struggled. Lisicki did make one beautiful drop shot that put her in position to win a service game, but she squandered the opportunity with a double fault and a poor shot to give Bartoli a break and a 5-1 lead, which eventually turned into a 6-1 first set for Bartoli.

Lisicki was visibly frustrated as the first set dragged on, putting her face in her palms multiple times following bad shots. She had a couple double faults that really hurt her, and the fact that she only managed to put in 51 percent of her first serves certainly didn’t help either.

In the second set, things got a little more interesting. Lisicki started nailing her first serves, and seemed to gain confidence from each shot. She took her first service game, and then took Bartoli to the wire on the next. She managed four separate break opportunities, but couldn’t seal the deal on any of them, and Bartoli eventually held serve.

On Lisicki’s next service game, Bartoli hit a shot down the line that Lisicki had no chance to get, but part of that may have been due to the fact that the ball was actually out. Lisicki didn’t challenge though, and then gave up two quick points to Bartoli to fall down love-40, eventually being broken to make it 2-1.

At this point in the match, Lisicki had a whopping 17 unforced errors to Bartoli’s 10.

Bartoli held serve without issue, and then Lisicki looked to hold as well after an ace to go up 40-30. Unfortunately, she proceeded to double fault, and Bartoli had a chance to bring it back. Lisicki was incredibly frustrated at this point, and looked to be just short of crying, taking a minute to compose herself between serves. Bartoli eventually took that game on the second break point.

Bartoli again held serve without issue, and proceeded to go up 30-love on Lisicki’s next service game. She ended up at 40-15 with a double championship point opportunity. But Lisicki held on with strong serves to get to deuce, and eventually held serve to extend the match.

Lisicki then fought back even more, breaking Bartoli to make it 5-3 in the second set. From there, she held her serve without issue, finally landing those outside shots down the line that she was missing earlier in the match. Bartoli asserted herself on her serve, however, and had her fourth championship point at 40-love and sealed the match with an impressive ace.

Lisicki’s incredible run through the tournament wasn’t enough to put her over Bartoli. Lisicki bested No. 1 Serena Williams and No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska on the way to making her first ever Grand Slam finals appearances. She was the lowest seed to make it to the semifinals and the first No. 23 seed since Venus Williams in 2007 to make it to the finals.

This was the first Wimbledon women’s final since 2007 that featured two players seeded outside the Top 10. This year’s tournament was notable due to all of the upsets, with Radwanska the only Top 10 player to make it into the semifinals.

Sunday will see the conclusion of this year’s tournament with the men’s final between No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Andy Murray. There were upsets early on in the men’s draw as well, with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer making early exits, but the top two seeds held firm and will now face off for the championship.