“It was a pitch-black day for me, I got up on my left foot, so to speak”: Sabine Lisicki Photo: Huebner
Ten years ago, Sabine Lisicki was in the Wimbledon final. “Bumm-Bumm-Bine” was born and inspired far beyond the boulevard. And today? She hasn’t won a match in a WTA tournament for a long time.
Almost exactly ten years ago, tennis fever suddenly raged again in Germany. While it didn’t draw as large a crowd as it did in the days of Boris Becker and Steffi Graf, it did get many to flick through their TV guide in search of free-to-air TV coverage from Wimbledon. In vain, big lawn tennis was only available for a fee back then, which frustrated people temporarily.
They wanted to watch the young, blond Sabine Lisicki, who often smiles even on the tennis court – how she gradually conquered the London lawn, beat almost overwhelming opponents like Serena Williams and was the first German since Graf in 1999 to reach a Grand Slam final . When it came down to it on July 6, 2013, the Berliner’s nerves gave out, so that French Marion Bartoli won the final and thus the classic lawn race. But “Bumm-Bumm-Bine” was born and inspired far beyond the boulevard.