Oz Open: Schiavone defeats Kuznetsova in longest women’s match
By ANISunday, January 23, 2011
MELBOURNE - French Open champion and Italian Francesca Schiavone needed a women’s Grand Slam-record of four hours, 44 minutes to beat Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova to advance to this year’s Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time in 11 attempts on Sunday.
The Italian won 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 on Sunday, including a three-hour third set in which she saved six match points.
The previous longest women’s match in a Grand Slam tournament was at Melbourne Park last year, when Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova beat Regina Kulikova 7-6 (5), 6-7 (10), 6-3 in a match lasting 4 hours, 19 minutes.
Schiavone won on her third match point in the 30th game of the final set.
She will now take on top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals. (ANI)
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