Maria Sharapova avenged her Wimbledon defeat against Sabine Lisicki as the world number three savoured a 6-7 (8/10), 6-4, 6-3 victory over the German in the third round of the Olympics on Wednesday. Sharapova crashed to a shock Wimbledon fourth round exit against Lisicki last month and the Russian lost her place on top of the world rankings as a result.
But the 25-year-old, back at the All England Club less than a month later, made amends as she produced a gutsy fightback to eliminate the 15th seed and booked a quarter-final meeting with Belgium's Kim Clijsters.
A tense first set went to a tie-break and Sharapova, competing in her first Olympics, paid the price for failing to convert a set point as Lisicki produced some tremendous defence before going on the attack to snatch the lead.
Lisicki was on the verge of another famous win over Sharapova when she broke in the second set. But Sharapova refused to surrender and she hit back in typically tenacious fashion to level at 4-4.
A bruising encounter swung Sharapova's way when she broke as Lisicki served to stay in the set two games later.
Sharapova had the bit between her teeth and she secured the crucial break late in the third set to finally scrape through in two hours and 47 minutes.
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