Lisicki: A smiling German with allergy to grass

Sabine Lisicki, the smiling darling of the Centre Court, has become Wimbledon's favorite German, adopted as an honorary Brit just like Steffi Graf and Boris Becker before her.

But a crippling ankle injury in 2010 as well as a bizarre allergy to grass almost conspired to wreck her dream of ever featuring in a Wimbledon final.

The injury, which kept her off tour for five months and sent her world ranking plummeting to 218, left her needing "to learn to walk again".