Wimbledon Womens Semi-Final Predictions, Day 10: Radwanska-Lisicki and Bartoli-Flipkens

Agnieszka Radwanska v Sabine Lisicki

A.Radwanska

This tournament has seen an incredible amount of shocks, but the giant-killers on the most part have not been able to back it up.  Sabine Lisicki did not fall into that category as she followed up her fantastic win over Serena with a straight sets triumph against Kaia Kanepi, 6-3 6-3.  Lisicki now takes on Agnieszka Radwanska, who had her third consecutive three setter and looked completely knackered at the end of her 7-6(5) 4-6 6-2 victory over Li Na in 2 hours and 33 minutes.  I thought it was Aga's best performance of 2013 and all in all, it was a really terrific match.  Li made an incredible number of ventures into the net, but Radwanska's defence was sensational; it took Aga 8 match points to get her weary legs across the finishing line, but she was going all out at the end, wracking up a total of 32 winners to Li's 58.

Radwanska and Lisicki have met twice before and both were on hard courts.  Lisicki won in Stanford in 2011 in a tight three setter, but Aga comprehensively rolled to victory when they played in Dubai in 2012.  Radwanska looked really tired at the end of her quarter-final, but Lisicki will be quite fresh having got through her quarter-final first and in quick time.  Radwanska will frustrate Lisicki with her variety and stellar defence, but the way that Sabine came out against Kanepi having played her best match to beat Serena the day before spoke volumes to me.  Sabine is gunning for the Wimbledon title and she can do this...

Prediction - Lisicki to beat Radwanska in 3 sets

Kirsten Flipkens v Marion Bartoli

K.Flipkens

Wimbledon 2013 will be long remembered for its crazy upsets and you can add Kirsten Flipken's three set victory over Petra Kvitova to the growing list.  Considering this was her first quarter-final at a Grand Slam, Flipkens played an impeccable match and showed nerves of steel to close it out at the first opportunity.  She served especially well and hit just 5 unforced errors (to 23 winners) in the whole match.  Kvitova deserves a mention as she was obviously struggling with some kind of illness and her sportsmanship is second to none as she waited for Flipkens to finish celebrating before walking off together. 

Flipkens will now meet Marion Bartoli, who edged past Sloane Stephens in a tight and exciting two setter, 6-4 7-5.  The quality was patchy at times, but there were some stunning rallies throughout this match.  Out of nowhere and following a pretty rough year, Bartoli has suddenly hit one of those hot streaks.  She was hitting the ball incredibly well against Sloane and her return was pretty phenomenal at times.  This is another tough semi-final to call, but the way that Bartoli was hitting the ball yesterday, so flat and consistent, she gets the edge for me over Flipkens... but it's just an edge!

Prediction - Bartoli to beat Flipkens in 3 sets