They arrived at the same lofty stage in different manners Tuesday as they played under the closed roof on Centre Court.

Lisicki had to shrug off the loss of three match points in the second set before defeating Marion Bartoli of France, 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-1, in 2 hours 21 minutes. Sharapova needed nothing more than an hour to overwhelm Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, 6-1, 6-1.

But their paths to the semifinals have much in common, with Sharapova trying to get back to winning Grand Slam singles titles after a major shoulder injury and Lisicki trying to get back on the fast track to stardom after a major ankle problem.

?It?s the road that you sometimes have to take,? Sharapova said. ?It?s not always straight. There are a lot of zigags. A lot of time you feel like it?s a dead end. You have to turn around and have a few other options.?

Sharapova certainly had other career options. As the world?s highest-paid female athlete, with three Grand Slam singles titles to her credit, she could have continued to develop her brand and business without developing her game. But she was just 21 when she decided to undergo surgery on her right shoulder in 2008, still deeply enamored of competition and the daily structure and challenges it provides.

Now 24, she is back in the semifinals of Wimbledon for the first time in 2006.

This will be Lisicki?s first Grand Slam semifinal, and it looked as if it might not take this long to get this far when she reached the quarterfinals here in 2009. But later that same year she severely sprained her left ankle in the second round of the United States Open while facing match point against Anastasia Rodionova of Australia.

She left the court in a wheelchair and more left ankle problems ruined her 2010 season, causing her to miss nearly five months of competition and knocking her out of the top 200 in the rankings. But she has roared back in Britain this summer, winning the grasscourt title in Birmingham and then receiving a late wild card into Wimbledon.

She is now the first German woman to reach the semifinals here since Steffi Graf in 1999. Lisicki is part of what looks very much like a renaissance for the German women?s game, with Andrea Petkovic and Julia Goerges also experiencing success this season.

?It just feels amazing to be in the semifinals, especially after all I went through,? Lisicki said. ?I think it?s also great for the German tennis to have great girls. It?s not only me.?

The other semifinal here will be between Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and either Victoria Azarenka, the No. 4 seed from Belarus, or the unseeded Austrian Tamira Paszek, whose match was to be completed late Tuesday. Kvitova, a big-hitting left-hander who was a semifinalist here last year, defeated Tsvetana Pironkova of Belarus, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-2.

It was an indoor-outdoor round at the All England Club. Rain forced the closure of the roof over Centre Court and delayed the start of the two quarterfinal matches on Court 1, which, for now at least, has no meteorological backup plan.

But even with the roof closed, Lisicki and Bartoli were battling the elements. The roof over Centre Court, first put into use in 2009, is different from the retractable roofs in use at the Australian Open. It is made, in part, of fabric to allow for natural light, and though it allows the players and grass to remain dry, it does not block out the sound from the outside world.

A massive thunderclap startled Lisicki at one stage, causing her to laugh nervously, and as the heavy rain pounded on the fabric above, it was often difficult in the stands to hear the ball making contact with the strings.

?It was tough because it was very noisy,? Bartoli said. ?We had the thunder and lightning outside. It took a while to adapt.?

Lisicki already had played a match indoors this year: upsetting Li Na, the reigning French Open champion from China, in the second round. But she had not played on a day quite like this.

?Definitely something different to play on grass indoors and have a big thunderstorm out there,? Lisicki said. ?But you just have to focus on the match and on each point, so it?s all right.?

It might be best if Lisicki focuses on the present instead of the past when she faces Sharapova on Thursday. They have played just once before: on a hardcourt in Miami in the third round of this year?s SonyEricsson Open. Sharapova won, 6-2, 6-0.