LONDON, England (AP) — Sabine Lisicki is allergic to Wimbledon, sort of.

Not the town in southwest London, and not the All England Club, per se. But she does have hay fever, making her actually hypersensitive to the very grass that the tournament is so famous for.

That affliction, of course, won’t stop her from playing in the Wimbledon final today, when either she or Marion Bartoli will end up with their first Grand Slam title.

“I learned how to cope with that,” the 23-year-old Lisicki said yesterday of her hay fever. “In the beginning, the first time I was here, which was, what, five years ago, I really was struggling with the allergies. But by now I know what to do, what to take, to calm those allergies down. I’m on medication.”

She also knows what to do tennis-wise when she steps on to the finely manicured lawn on Centre Court.

On Thursday, the 23rd-seeded German rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the third set to beat Agnieszka Radwanska and reach her first major final. She did the same thing in the fourth round, when she eliminated defending champion Serena Williams.

Today’s match will be only the second time in the 45-year Open era that two women who have never won a Grand Slam trophy will play for the championship at the All England Club. And it’s difficult to say who has the edge.

Bartoli has been here before, reaching the 2007 Wimbledon final before losing to Venus Williams. And she hasn’t lost a set so far this year, winning all six of her matches in straight sets. But Lisicki is 3-1 against Bartoli, including a win at Wimbledon two years ago when the German reached the semi-finals.

“A final of a Grand Slam is always a matter of details. Maybe a point here, a point there will make the difference,” said Bartoli, now 28 and much more experienced than the last time she made it this far. “Maybe someone who is a bit more gutsy than the other player, someone who is having a better day than the others.

“Sabine is definitely serving faster than me, especially on the first serve,” Bartoli added. “I might take the ball a bit earlier. But obviously we both have the same thing, playing fairly flat and from the baseline and trying to hit some winners.”

Lisicki’s power game is something to note. Her hard serves have earned her the nickname ‘Boom Boom Bine’, a moniker she shares with another German tennis great, three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker.