INDIAN WELLS: Sabine Lisicki was too much for defending champion Flavia Pennetta on Thursday, saving three match points in a three-set win over the Italian to book her Indian Wells semi-final berth.
Pennetta had hoped to repeat her surprise victory of last year, and managed to save one match point before running out of gas in the marathon quarter-final, won 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4) by the 24th seed from Germany.
Former Wimbledon runner-up Lisicki needed two hours and 40 minutes to fashion the victory, which set up a clash with another former champion, Serbian Jelena Jankovic.
"Everything happened tonight," Pennetta said. "Match point for one, match point for the other one.
"Tennis is like this. I'm happy about the match, but of course I am upset, because when you are there, you want to win it."
After dropping the first set, Pennetta saved a match point in the 10th game of the second. She went on to take the game three points later to even the set at 5-5.
Lisicki clinched the victory in dramatic fashion with her fifth ace of the match in the third-set tiebreaker. She celebrated by letting go of her racquet and dropping to her knees before going to the net for a long embrace with her equally-exhausted opponent.
Lisicki won 75 percent of her first-serve points and broke Pennetta four times in the first career meeting between the two.
"In matches like this both players played unbelievable points. It was fun to be part of a match like this," said Lisicki, who owns the WTA record for the fastest serve -- a 131 mph (210.82 kph) blast she hit last year in Stanford.
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