An out-of-sorts Serena Williams crashed out of Wimbledon following a shock fourth-round defeat to Sabine Lisicki.
Rarely, if ever, has the tournament had such a red-hot favourite as Williams, who started the match against the No23 seed bidding for a 35th consecutive victory on the WTA Tour.
But Lisicki was undaunted by the fact she had taken just four games off the World No1 in their previous two encounters.
The opening set was not a contest for the purists more the pugilists with two of the heavier hitters in the women's game squaring up. Williams was also heavy footed and, despite having chances to break, could not make sufficiently telling in-roads on the serve of a player known as "Boom Boom".
The German was rewarded by breaking in the sixth game and Williams, her mind seemingly in turmoil, capitulated for the remainder of the set to go down 6-2.
Normal service appeared to have resumed in the second set when the American rounded that off 6-1 and it looked like she was set to saunter into the third set when she moved a break up.
While Lisicki played with a permanent smile on her face, Williams maintained a scowl, clearly unhappy with the standard of her tennis which was certainly below par, and that scowl only worsened when the game was turned on its head once more.
Williams moved ahead in the third set but Lisicki broke back, playing some of the best tennis of her career to round off the final set 6-4.
