Remember what was said yesterday about the elusiveness of consistency in women’s tennis? Saturday’s play at the All England Club only affirmed the theme.

Shortly after sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic got taken out by no-name American Melanie Oudin, fifth-rated Svetlana Kuznetsova–the reigning French Open champion–succumbed to the firepower of Germany’s Sabine Lisicki. Unseeded but quite dangerous, Lisicki used her own brand of big-babe tennis–mixed with the occasional drop shot–to overwhelm her more credentialed opponent. A decisive 6-2, 7-5 third-round triumph carries Lisicki into the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career. When the fourth round commences on Monday, Lisicki will face ninth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki–yes, the same woman Lisicki defeated two months ago in Charleston, South Carolina, for her only WTA Tour title.

When Jankovic lost to an unheard of 17-year-old, the responsibility for the outcome rested to a considerable degree on the Serb’s own shoulders. Melanie Oudin earned everything she received, but Jankovic’s lack of fitness and conditioning clearly played a substantial part in her own undoing. Lisicki’s swatting of Sveta, on the other hand, was more a product of the winner’s level of quality: The German won the third-round match more than the Russian lost it.

While ranking as a notably significant event in its own right, this match on Court 1 wasn’t nearly as much of a surprise as Jankovic-Oudin. When Lisicki powered past Wozniacki to win in Charleston, WTA watchers could see that this 19-year-old possessed the toolbox of skills compatible with an imposing grass-court game. Lisicki might have hit only 4 aces in this match, against 8 double faults, but whenever the German did get her first serve in play, she dominated, winning a stellar 80 percent of her first-serve points. Kuznetsova, by contrast, won just 56 percent of her first-serve points and could never feel comfortable when toeing the service line.

The tone of this match was established at the very beginning, and then maintained to its conclusion. Plainly put, Lisicki’s nerves would occasionally creep into the picture, but the German was able to right the ship just when she began to teeter. Kuznetsova broke the 19-year-old in the first game of the match, but Lisicki was able to promptly respond and thereby calm her mind. If she had fallen behind 2-0 in the opening set, Lisicki could have remained tenative and unsure, but the positive reaction to an immediate deficit allowed her to play at a generally high level. Smoking her serves at an average speed of 109 miles per hour–far more “ghitty up” than most players on tour (the Williams sisters being the exceptions)–Lisicki got the fifth seed on the defensive and kept her there. In little more than one hour, the German had amassed a commanding 6-2, 5-2 lead. The Kooze was set to lose by a wide margin, due partly to her own flat performance, but mostly because her teenage counterpart was able to deliver the goods.

Just then, however, the nerves that affected the underdog re-entered the equation against the woman who lifted the championship trophy in Paris just three weeks ago.

While Kuznetsova refused to quit, Lisicki–so close to the finish line–began to think about the moment and lost the free-flowing form that carried her to a huge scoreboard advantage. Serving for the match at 5-3, Lisicki’s imposing serve was broken for the first time in the second set; with Kuznetsova then serving at 4-5, Lisicki had a break point that doubled as a match point, but the German couldn’t pounce on a second-serve opportunity, and the French Open champ held for 5-all. What looked to be a runaway turned into a tense affair, but the realization of an extended swordfight evidently allowed Lisicki to regain focus on her tennis. No longer worrying about winning the match, the 19-year-old simply returned to playing high-percentage points. Lisicki held for 6-5 and then–in a repeat of the second game of the match–broke Kuznetsova (this time from 40-love down) to complete the biggest win of her young Grand Slam career.

As this match is put in context, it needs to be said that Lisicki–though unseeded and unaccustomed to the latter stages of a major tournament–owns the weapons that should make her a force on grass courts and cement in the coming years. It would not be a shock if this bomb-throwing ballstriker won a few more matches at Wimbledon, and then returned to the All England Club for more success in the future.

As for Kuznetsova–whose 24th birthday coincided with this defeat–another Grand Slam ended in an all-too-typical manner. The Kooze and her camp of coaches and advisors hoped that her title in France would transform the tenor and trajectory of her career at the majors; instead, another third-round loss will have to be entered on her resume. She does have the consolation of knowing she lost to a hard-hitting dynamo from Germany, but Svetlana Kuznetsova also realizes that she didn’t enhance her standing in women’s tennis with this letdown near London town.

Consistency is a word that might be used too often in conventional tennis discussions, but after Sabine Lisicki’s breakthrough win at Wimbledon on a surprising Saturday, the difficulty of this profession has only become even more magnified.

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