Duque-Mariño rallies to defeat Lisicki, reach Mallorca quarterfinals

Colombia’s Mariana DuqueMariño shook off a poor start to defeat Germany’s Sabine Lisicki 16, 63, 64 here Wednesday and reach the quarterfinals of the Mallorca Open.

The 64thranked Lisicki, the 2013 Wimbledon runnerup and holder of the record for the fastest serve by a female player 210.8 kilometers (131 miles) per hour in a 2014 event in Stanford, California succumbed to the solid baseline play and effective slice backhand of DuqueMariño, who won the players’ firstever meeting in one hour and 52 minutes.

After a claycourt swing that included a runnerup finish in Nuremberg and a secondround loss at Roland Garros, the 79thranked Colombian has made a successful transition to the grass with a pair of wins in Palma de Mallorca.

DuqueMariño will next take on Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova, a 63, 63 winner Wednesday over 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard.

The round of 16 matches in the top half of the draw will be played on Thursday, with Paraguay’s Veronica Cepede Royg taking on Germany’s Laura Siegemund; Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig squaring off against Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens, who upset Spanish top seed Garbiñe Muguruza on Tuesday; thirdseeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic playing Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo; and Germany’s AnnaLena Friedsam matching up against France’s Caroline Garcia.

The Mallorca Open is a tuneup event for Wimbledon, which gets under way on June 27. EFE