Lesser lights to contest Wimbledon women's semi-finals
As the stars fail, so the spotlight falls on the lesser lights who are now within touching distance of a crown that had looked unreachable
The leading ladies have exited stage left but the understudies have kept this most volatile of Wimbledon scripts bubbling along to ensure a new name will be engraved on the trophy come Saturday.
Emerging from a quarter-final line-up featuring women from eight different nations and with just two grand-slam titles between them were Sabine Lisicki, Agnieszka Radwanska, Marion Bartoli and, most surprising of all, Belgian Kirsten Flipkens.
Lisicki beat unseeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 6-3 to prove that Monday's shock victory over red-hot favourite Serena Williams was no flash in the pan.
Fourth seed Radwanska, last year's runner-up, outlasted China's Li Na in an absorbing three-set battle before the unorthodox Bartoli beat American upstart Sloane Stephens 6-4, 7-5 and Belgian Flipkens reached her first grand-slam semi-final by defeating 2011 champion Petra Kvitova in three sets.
Lisicki, trying to become Germany's first grand slam singles champion since Steffi Graf in 1996, will take on fourth seed Radwanska today, while Flipkens, languishing at 262nd in the world a year ago, will play 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Bartoli.
After the demise of so many fancied players, opportunity is knocking loudly for one of them.