TENNIS in DEPTH.

Francesca Schiavone moved into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after edging out Svetlana Kuznetsova in the longest women’s grand slam match in the open era. The Italian saved six match points along the way as she triumphed 6-4 1-6 16-14 in four hours and 44 minutes. By way of comparison, her last-eight opponent Caroline Wozniacki has spent just five hours and 31 minutes on court in total in her four matches at Melbourne Park.

French Open champion Schiavone won the first set before Kuznetsova, who beat Justine Henin in the previous round, stormed back to set up a decider which took exactly three hours to complete. Both players were struggling physically, especially Schiavone, who had a lengthy medical time-out at 11-10. The match swung one way and then the other before the Italian broke for 15-14 and then served it out at the third attempt after Kuznetsova had bravely threatened a comeback. “It is a fantastic moment for me,” said the sixth seed afterwards.

“It is one of the most emotional moments of my life.

“I just told myself to keep going, do it with the heart and go for it.”

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