Sabine Lisicki out of WTA

Third seed Sabine Lisicki was dumped out of the second-round of the WTA Nurnberger Versicherungscup in three sets after a spirited showing by Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino on Wednesday.

Home-favourite Lisicki was heavily fancied to go far in the clay-court event in Nuremberg, but she was defeated 6-2 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-3) by a player 78 places below her in the WTA world rankings.

After a delay for rain in the first set, Arruabarrena-Vecino broke twice for a 5-2 lead before serving out the set to love.

Lisicki wasted three set points in the second when leading 5-4 in the second, although she did show more composure to level the match on the tie-break.

There were four breaks of serve in a back-and-forth decider, but it was Arruabarrena-Vecino who this time took the initiative in the tie-break and progressed to the quarter-finals with her third match point.

Next up for the Spaniard is another German in Carolina Witthoft. The eighth seed was a comfortable 6-1 6-2 victor over Evgeniya Rodina.

In Wednesday's other match, qualifier Yulia Putintseva outlasted Kiki Bertens in an entertaining 6-4 5-7 7-5 victory.