Top seed Dinara Safina felt like Santa Claus after almost gifting German teenager Sabine Lisicki a place in the Wimbledon semi-finals yesterday.
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I was Santa Claus, says Safina
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Top seed Dinara Safina felt like Santa Claus after almost gifting German teenager Sabine Lisicki a place in the Wimbledon semi-finals yesterday.
Lisicki had already knocked out fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki to reach the quarter-finals, and threatened another upset after taking the opening set on Centre Court.
Perfect practice
"On the practice court I don't serve a single double fault.
"The serve is there, I just have to put the brain there. I know what I have to do, I'm just not doing it."
There was no escaping the fact that Safina had to come back from a set down to win for the second match in succession, having trailed former champion Amelie Mauresmo in the fourth round on Monday.
"It was disappointing because today again I had a very slow start, like I'm playing half of my tennis until I'm down, and then I start to play better," added Safina. "I let her play instead of starting to dictate myself from the first point.
"But I'm happy that I'm in the semis, I was tough mentally and I think that was the key today."
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