Sabine Lisicki News

Romanian qualifier Simona Halep upended the fourth-seeded Pole in 6-7 , 6-1, 6-2 fashion on the red clay at Foro Italico.

Laura Robson overcame strong winds to beat Venus Williams 6-3, 6-2 at the Italian Open on Monday and set up a second-round match with top-ranked Serena Williams.

MAY 09: Maria Sharapova of Russia jumps to play a forehand to Sabine Lisicki of Germany on day six of the Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament at the Caja Magica on May 9, 2013 in Madrid, Spain.

Top seeds Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova were a pair of straight-set third-round winners Thursday at the $4 million Madrid Open, a clay-court French Open tune-up. The defending champion and world No.

Having already established control by winning Youzhny's second service game, Nadal kept a point going with a deft no-look backhand flick before nailing a winner down the line to hold his serve and delight his fans at the Caja Magica.

A 10:50 A.M. start is on the early side for most Madrileas, but not for Maria Sharapova.

After breaking Lisicki late in the second set, Sharapova used her big serve to finish off the third-round match in 1 hour, 42 minutes.

Sara Errani of Italy was the lone seeded player in action Saturday to start the Madrid Open and the 2012 French Open runner-up had an easy win against Poland's Urszula Radwanska.

Top-seeded Maria Sharapova got through another tough test in outlasting Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Porsche Grand Prix.

Russia's Maria Sharapova returns a shot to Serbia's Ana Ivanovic during their quarter final match at the Porsche tennis GP in Stuttgart, Germany, Friday, April 26, 2013.

APRIL 26: Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States leaves the court for a treatment during her match against Sabine Lisicki of Germany during Day 5 of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix at Porsche-Arena on April 26, 2013 in Stuttgart, Germany.

Caroline Wozniacki blew an early 3-0 lead on her way to crashing out of the WTA Stuttgart Open in the first round thanks to a 7-6 6-1 defeat by Carla Suarez.

Eighth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova and former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic were among Tuesday's opening-round winners at the $795,000 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.