Sabine Lisicki: Wins 2009 Family Circle Cup at Daniel Island.
Germany’s Sabine Lisicki (No. 63 in the world) turned in an impressive performance, beating Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki (No. 12) to become the lowest-ranked player ever to win the Family Circle Cup held at the Daniel Island Tennis Center the week of April 11-19.
Lisicki continued a long tradition in which fast-rising (and often unknown) players first grab the attention of the public with a breakout performance at the Family Circle Cup, stunning top-ranked players along the way. Pam Shriver, Tracy Austin and Martina Navratilova were among the first youngsters to put established tour players on notice at the event.
The tradition held true to form in the 2009 edition with eventual winner Lisicki upsetting the world's No. 5 player Venus Williams in the third round.
Beautiful spring weather prevailed on Daniel Island for most of the week. More than 85,000 tennis fans came out during the tournament to watch some of the top-ranked players on the WTA Tour compete at the island’s Family Circle Tennis Center.
Despite the last minute exit of Serena Williams, attendance was up the first weekend of the tournament and overall averaged just slightly below last year’s turnout. With world No. 5 (and the tournament’s No. 2 seed) Venus Williams losing before the quarterfinals, and world No. 3 Elena Dementieva falling in the semifinals, two of the sport’s most promising young stars faced off for the final match on April 19.
Lisicki captured what was her first major title over her childhood friend Caroline Wozniacki, 6-2 6-4, in the final, avenging a third-round loss to her in the third round of last year's Australian Open. Watch for these two to make more headlines as the Grand Slam season begins in May with the French Open in Paris.
