Former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki (28) missed her first WTA final in Taipei since September 2014. In her fourth match after a break of almost three months, the 28-year-old from Berlin lost to Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova after a break-festival with 5:7 and 4:6.
Kozlova, who is five years younger than Timea Babos (Hungary) or Wang Yafan (China), could win her first tour title by winning the final.
The first encounter between Sabine Lisicki and Kateryna Kozlova was marked by numerous service losses. In the first set alone, there were seven breaks, and Kozlova’s decisive lead in the eleventh set was 6-5. In the second set, both players lost their serve five times and Lisicki scored the decisive break 4:5.
Despite her defeat, the performance in Taiwan’s capital city gave Lisicki hope:”Never write me off,”she told us about her social networks. The aim now is to get constancy back into their game. In the semi-final of the Challenger tournament in Limoges at the beginning of November 2017, she had injured her knee and had to undergo surgery later.