PARIS (AP) Overcome by dizziness and muscle cramps during a 2½-hour match, German qualifier Sabine Lisicki was helped onto a stretcher and taken off Court 1 at the French Open on Wednesday after losing to Russia's Vera Zvonareva 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in the second round.

A trainer examined the 21-year-old Lisicki during third-set changeovers, even wrapping a black gauge around her right arm to check her blood pressure.

When the match ended shortly before 9 p.m., Lisicki didn't go shake hands, instead crouching down on court. Zvonareva - the runner-up at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year - walked around the net and checked on Lisicki, putting a hand on her shoulder. A sobbing Lisicki then lay down on a towel placed on the red clay, and a trainer massaged her back, until the stretcher arrived.

As she was carried off, Lisicki covered her face with her left hand. She met with a doctor and was to get additional medical tests Thursday, the tournament said.

"I started cramping at the end of the second set, and this continued in the third," Lisicki said in a statement released by the WTA. "From 4-2 in the third set, I began to feel dizzy and had problems seeing the ball clearly. At no point did I think of retiring, and I kept fighting until the end."

Lisicki, a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon in 2009, held serve for a 5-2 lead in the third set and in the next game was one point away from winning the match. But she sent a forehand return long there and never again held a match point, dropping the last five games.

After getting broken while serving for the match at 5-3, Lisicki asked to see a trainer. During an extended break, she ate an energy bar and banana and drank liquids; Zvonareva bounced around at the baseline to stay warm, then eventually took some practice serves.

When action resumed, Zvonareva won eight of the next nine points to go up 6-5. Across the net, Lisicki began crying. She did keep playing, though, and managed to fend off two match points, including the second with a forehand winner.

But Lisicki barely sent a backhand wide at the end of a 22-stroke exchange, then crouched down, nearly taking a seat on the court. On Zvonareva's third match point, a backhand sailed long off Lisicki's racket.

"I hope she feels OK. I heard she's feeling OK now. She's seeing a doctor," the No. 3-seeded Zvonareva said at her news conference.

"That's what happens sometimes. It's part of the sport," Zvonareva added. "No matter what, I had to keep doing my job."