Former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki wins first title in nine years after previous knee reconstruction

Former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki has won her first title in almost a decade after overcoming a number of injuries, including a knee reconstruction.

The German tennis player, who has a career-high ranking of World No. 12, turned pro in 2006 before making her breakthrough in 2009 when she reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon. In 2013, she went on to reach the final of the grasscourt major, defeating Serena Williams along the way before ultimately finishing as runner-up to France's Marion Bartoli.

Prior to this, Lisicki had already struggled with ankle injuries that had kept her from performing at her best, even keeping her out of competition for five months in 2010. After her success in Wimbledon, she won her first title on the WTA Tour in three years at the Hong Kong Open and held the record for fastest serve by a female tennis player between 2014 and 2018.

However, Lisicki was forced to shut down her 2015 season following the US Open due to a knee injury. After ending the year at No. 32, she proceeded to drop throughout 2016, ending up at No. 93 by the end of the year. In 2017, she was forced to withdraw from the Australian Open with a shoulder injury and ended the year outside the Top 200 in the WTA Ranking.

While her injuries and drop in the rankings continued over the next few years, it was in 2020 that she faced her biggest challenge. While competing in Linz, Lisicki fell and experienced an ACL tear. She later announced that she would be undergoing surgery for the injury, which left her absent from the sport throughout 2021.

Despite all these struggles, Lisicki returned in 2022 and has now won her first title in nine years at the ITF Canada 07A. The 34-year-old defeated fifth seed Stacey Fung in the final after a three-set battle, emerging victorious 7-6 (2), 6-7 (5), 6-3.

Lisicki has since taken to social media to reflect on her journey and to share her joy: "First title since knee reconstruction surgery which has been almost exactly 3 years ago. The odds were against me to ever play pro tennis again, yet 19 months of brutal rehab, training, believing and here we are. We made it. We won in Calgary!" she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.