LONDON — The leading ladies had already exited the stage but the understudies kept the most volatile Wimbledon script bubbling along Tuesday as Sabine Lisicki proved to be no one-hit wonder to reach the semifinals. A day after producing the shock of shocks at a tournament that has seen upsets galore by beating red-hot favorite Serena Williams, the smiling German overwhelmed Estonia's Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 6-3 to reach the last four at Wimbledon for the second time. There she will face Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, runner-up last year and the highest-ranked player in an unfamiliar quarterfinal line-up, who emerged victorious from an absorbing Centre Court battle with China's sixth seed Li Na. A classic match-up between the powerful Li and the crafty Radwanska ended with the elastic-limbed Pole winning 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2 on her eighth match point. Radwanska saved four set points in the opener, squandered a 4-2 lead in the second as Li hit back, then, after an injury time-out to have strapping applied to her thigh, forged ahead under the closed roof, only to suffer an attack of nerves. She double-faulted on one match point and on another she looped in a second serve that barely registered on the speed gun as Li threatened to begin the great escape and reach her first Wimbledon semifinal. Radwanska finally sealed only her second win in a grand slam quarterfinal in nine attempts when Li floated a backhand long. A quarterfinal lineup featuring eight players from eight nations and only two Grand Slam titles between them had prompted some scornful morning headlines. In the other half of the draw, Marion Bartoli of France eliminated the last US player at Wimbledon Tuesday, reaching her third Grand Slam semifinal by beating Sloane Stephens 6-4, 7-5 in a rain-interrupted, break-filled match. The 15th-seeded Bartoli, the 2007 runner-up at the All England Club, was leading 5-4 with Stephens serving at deuce when they resumed after a 2½-hour rain delay. Bartoli won the next two points, the latter a 27-stroke exchange, to take the opening set. That began a stretch in which Bartoli broke Stephens five consecutive times, four at love. After Stephens broke to get within 5-4, then held to 5-all, Bartoli took the last two games, including yet another break at love to end the quarterfinal. In Thursday's semifinals, Bartoli faces 20th-seeded Kirsten Flipkens. The bespectacled Belgian outsider threw her name into the hat of Wimbledon's giant-slayers as she beat 2011 champion Petra Kvitova 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Kvitova had been the last grand slam champion left in the women's draw but she joined the likes of Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Li Na on the All England Club scrapheap after being suffocated under Centre Court's closed roof. All seemed on track when eighth seed Kvitova took the first set but she came unstuck in the second and called on the trainer after falling behind 5-2. She popped a pill and had her temperature checked and although she appeared to get a second wind after surrendering the second set, a rush of blood when she charged to the net and fired a forehand volley long at break point down in the ninth game cost her dear. Flipkins, who is known as Flipper on the tour, kept her cool to serve out a momentous victory with an ace. — Agencies
