Wimbledon 2013 Women's Quarter Final Results As no-one could have predicted a fortnight ago, Sunday's Wimbledon women's final will be between the 15th seed and the 24th seed, and the only certainty about it is that either Marion Bartoli or Sabine Lisicki respectively will win her first major championship. Nothing about this Wimbledon has run a true course. Semi-finals implies two roughly equal halves. In fact, one was a saga in three acts, the other barely a curtain-raiser. Bartoli's 6-1 6-2 annihiliation of Kirsten Flipkens lasted scarcely an hour, and only that long because of a pause while Flipkens had treatment, as if she was not getting the treatment from Bartoli anyway. I tried my slices. She didn't have any problem with that. I tried the dropshot. She got it. I played a passing, she came to the net. I tried a lob ... I tried everything, actually. Kirsten Flipkins following her loss to Marion Bartoli It was dignified as a contest only by Bartoli's generosity to Flipkens afterwards when she said she suspected the Belgian was injured. Flipkens said she did aggravate an old knee strain, but as a factor in the match it was inconsequential beside Bartoli's unconventional brilliance. She didn't have any problem with that," said Flipkens. I tried 100 per cent, but it didn't work out. Bartoli dazzled herself. "I saw the ball like a football," Bartoli said. Everything was just working so perfectly. And in a semi-final at Wimbledon! Sabine Lisicki of Germany hits a forehand during her Wimbledon semi-final victory over Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska. That was the preliminaries. Lisicki's 6-4 2-6 9-7 shading of fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska absorbed two hours and 18 minutes and all that Radwanska had to give, and was betrayed only by Radwanska's snitchy lookaway handshake and summary abandonment of the court at the end. It is one thing to fight to the death, another to fight on after it. Radwanska denied poor sportsmanship, but admitted that as by far the highest-ranked player to reach the semi-finals, she knew the trophy had been hers to lose, and she had lost it. Otherwise, this match was played on a different plane to the first; it was battle royal. Lisicki, buoyed by a text from Steffi Graf wishing her well, broke Radwanska twice in succession to claim the first set and an instant lead in the second. But Radwanska's way is to sow confusion, and now she did it so expertly that Lisicki failed to win a service game in the second set, and after a fifth successive break trailed 0-3 in the third. The ball that did not scream past Radwanska somehow went soft and flat on her racquet, causing Lisicki to mistime and doubt. The fulcrum of Lisicki's game is her serve, but one at the end of the second set would have been called a waist-high no-ball in cricket. Marion Bartoli of France reacts as she defeats Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium in their women's semi-final tennis match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London. But Lisicki had been here before, when playing Serena Williams, and the memory sustained her. "I believed I could still win, no matter what," she said. She lifted, served for the match at 5-4, lost and rejoined battle with Radwanska. As it escalated, at one point Radwanska threw a racquet at a distantly passing ball, not in pique, but symbolising the lengths both were prepared to go to now. It became too much for the centre court scoreboard, which blew a fuse. This was Radwanska's fourth two-hour-plus match in a row, and now she felt it in her legs. Asked later what she would remember from this tournament, she replied: "A lot of tennis." The final set lasted longer than entire Bartoli/Flipkens match. When at last Lisicki won, she threw herself onto the court, but carefully; this was not the time to do a mischief. "It was a battle," said Lisicki, "and I'm so happy to have won it." So two were left, to compare and contrast. Lisicki is medically allergic to grass, but comes alive at Wimbledon. She has a big serve and in this tournament has hit more cold winners than anyone else. She is bubbly, but resilient and driven, too; to fortify her while recuperating from a grave ankle injury three years ago, she read books by skier Herman Maier and American footballer Drew Brees. Now she stands to become the first German woman to win a major since Graf last century, but her disposition is unaltered. "When I got here, I said anything's possible," she said, "and I still do." She has been the rediscovery of the tournament. Bartoli played a lost a final here to Venus Williams in 2007, has only once been even to a major semi-final since, but at 29 is reborn. She has not lost set in the tournament, nor even had to play a tie-breaker. Her game and personality are of a piece: eccentric, but liable to grow on those she engages. She hits with two hands on both sides, which makes her look like a centrifuge, but with good timing. Between points, she jumps and bounces and plays full-blooded phantom shots. But before matches, if necessary, she sleeps. Luxuriating in the empty locker room on Thursday, she kipped until half-an-hour before match time. It is doubtful that Lisicki sleeps even at night.