Sabine Lisicki at home in the Aegon Classic
Sabine Lisicki is looking more and more at home on the grass courts at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham.
She certainly looked in impressive form in beating Magdalena Rybarikova 7-6, 6-4 in the third round yesterday.
She makes no secret of her love of both the surface and the surroundings at the Edgbaston Priory Club.
Lisicki was runner-up at Wimbledon in 2013 and Aegon Classic Birmingham champion in 2011.
He said: "I have a lot of special memories of England, not only Birmingham but definitely Birmingham as well.
"The crowd and I really connect well here and I love to be part of that. I'm very happy to be back here."
The 25-year-old from Germany has one of the biggest serves on the women's tour.
She now holds the record for both serve speed (131 MPH, hit in Stanford, California last summer) and aces hit in a single match (27, which she achieved at Birmingham on Wednesday).
She would surely surrender all those records for another Aegon Classic Birmingham title, especially given the strength of this year's player field.
Her opponent today, Daniela Hantuchova, ended the dream run of Michelle Larcher de Brito.
The Portuguese came through qualifying and knocked out Ana Ivanovic in round two but she could not overcome a seasoned grass-court campaigner like Hantuchova.
The Slovakian earned her 6-4, 7-5 win to earn her place in the quarter-finals.
Top seed Simone Halep remains the highest ranked player in the draw (at three in the world) and must be rated as favourite for this year's Maud Watson Trophy.
She appears to be getting more and more comfortable on grass – despite the fact that is it not her favourite surface – and was certainly never troubled by Klara Koukalova yesterday in her 6-1, 6-3 win.
Halep now plays Kristina Mladenovic, who continued her giant-killing run by following up Wednesday's win over Eugenie Bouchard with a 7-6, 6-2 victory over last year's finalist Barbora Strycova.
Carla Suarez Navarro, seeded three, is another player who is adapting a natural clay-court game to the faster, lower-bouncing surface of grass.
She bundled out two-time grand slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-4.
