Melbourne, Australia: French Open champion Francesca Schiavone needed a women's Grand Slam-record of 4 hours, 44 minutes to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova and advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time in 11 attempts.
The veteran Italian won 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 on Sunday, including a three-hour third set in which she saved six match points.
The longest previous 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.
To meet Wozniacki
Schiavone won on her third match point in the 30th game of the final set. She will take on top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals.
Women play best-of-three in the majors and WTA tournaments. Men play best-of-five sets in the majors, so the records there are much longer.
The Grand Slam record for a men's match is 11 hours, 5 minutes, an epic battle between John Isner and French opponent Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon last year that was played over three days, with the American eventually winning 70-68 in the fifth set.
It was the longest tennis match in history measured by games and elapsed time.
Five-setter
The Australian Open record for the longest men's match was set in 2009, a five-setter between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco that Nadal won in 5 hours, 14 minutes.
