LONDON, England (AFP) — Sabine Lisicki, the smiling darling of Centre Court, and eccentric Marion Bartoli, who happily slept away the minutes leading up to her semi-final, set up an unlikely Wimbledon final yesterday.

Lisicki, the 23rd seed, became the first German woman since 1999 to reach a Grand Slam final when she defeated Polish fourth seed, Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 2-6, 9-7.

French 15th seed Bartoli, meanwhile, eased into her second Wimbledon final with a 6-1, 6-2 demolition of Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens.

Lisicki, dubbed ‘Doris Becker’ for her howitzer serving by a tabloid British press in honour of her compatriot Boris Becker, will tomorrow bid to become Germany’s first champion at a major since Steffi Graf beat Martina Hingis to claim the 1999 French Open.

Graf, who sent Lisicki a good-luck text ahead of the semi-final, was also the last German to reach a final at a major when she was runner-up to Lindsay Davenport at Wimbledon that same year.

Lisicki reached the championship match the hard way against last year’s runner-up Radwanska.

She was a set and a break ahead before an astonishing collapse put her 0-3 down in the decider with errors flying off both sides.

That sequence saw her lose nine of 10 games from the midway point of the second set to halfway through the decider, dropping serve on five successive occasions.

But 23-year-old Lisicki, who put out five-time champion Serena Williams in the fourth round, mounted a memorable fightback against a player who made the semi-final having spent three hours more on court.

She finished with nine aces and 60 winners which compensated for the 46 unforced errors she sent down, a worthwhile price for her all-out assault in the two hour 18-minute clash.

“It’s unbelievable. The last few games were so exciting. We were both fighting and it was a real battle,” said Lisicki, who had made the semi-finals in 2011.

Bartoli revealed a pre-match nap in the locker room was the secret of her success as she raced past Belgian 20th seed Flipkens in just 62 minutes.

“I felt I was just a bit tired and needed a quick nap just to recover from my early morning practise and everything else I had to do to be ready to go on court,” said 28-year-old Bartoli who was runner-up to Venus Williams in 2007.