In an interview with Bild am Sonntag, Sabine Lisicki talks about the difficulties of her comeback, financial investments and her goals.
After several injuries, the 2013 Wimbledon finalist fights for her comeback. Lisicki, once number twelve in the WTA ranking, currently ranks only 208th in the world rankings. At the US Open and Wimbledon she failed to qualify this year.
Lisicki was particularly affected by the early end of the lawn Mecca on Church Road: “Every defeat hurts, but it hurt especially badly. After my injury, I had been working for months on this tournament, it was almost all the time my motivation,” said the 29-year-old in the BamS.
The sporty dry spell also has the consequence that Lisicki has to pay at the moment. This year it has so far earned a total of 47,506 dollars (a total of around 7.02 million dollars). “I’m currently going into the red every week. I’ve hardly ever played this year. And if the results weren’t good, so there wasn’t much prize money either,” she explained, adding: “But should I save on my trainer or on my physio? I’m sure that’s the wrong way to go.”
Lisicki stressed that she was convinced that she was “on the right track”. “And I will leave this difficult phase behind me very soon.” She is currently being coached by her father Richard and coach Guillaume Peyre: “He knows me well, after all he looked after me a few years ago.
On Sunday the former Fed Cup player lost in the last round of the qualification for the WTA tournament in Tianjin to the Czech Barbora Krejcikova in 2:30 hours with 6:7 (7:9), 7:5, 6:3.
Despite the recurring setbacks, Lisicki, who has won four individual WTA titles in her career so far, still has a big goal for the near future. She wants to get so far up the world rankings “that I can play qualifier for the Australian Open in January”.