TOP seed Dinara Safina felt like Santa Claus after almost gifting German teenager Sabine Lisicki a place in the Wimbledon semi-finals.
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.
But Safina overcame serving 15 double faults to win 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 6-1 in two hours and 28 minutes to seal a last-four clash with defending champion Venus Williams tomorrow.
“My service, I think I was Santa Claus serving so many double faults,” admitted Safina, who was somewhat flattered by the scoreline.
“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.
“Sometimes even I don’t know what I’m doing with my serve. In yesterday’s match I served very well the whole of the third set. Suddenly today I warm up, I’m serving good, everything is good, and suddenly it’s not me there serving.”
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.
