Italy's Francesca Schiavone, front, embraces Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia after their epic match. Photograph: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images
For a generation in which the likes of Usain Bolt and Lance Armstrong have made super-human athletic feats almost commonplace, it is reassuring then that we can still be surprised and impressed by incredible efforts of sporting achievement. The 11hr 5min epic between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon last summer is a record that will surely never be beaten but now we have a women's record that, if it may not quite match it, comes a close second.
The 30-year-old Francesca Schiavone, the Italian who lit up the French Open when she won the title in Paris last June, beat Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 today to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after four hours and 44 minutes – 25 minutes longer than the previous record. It was by far the best match of the women's event and by the time the two grand slam champions embraced at the net, they could barely walk, the fatigue already tearing through their bodies.
"It was for me personally really fantastic," Schiavone whispered when she had regained some strength. "I hope one day to show this DVD to my son. 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."
The match lasted longer than Gone With The Wind, longer than three football matches and marginally less than it took Andy Murray to win his first three matches here. That it was played in temperatures pushing 30C merely added to the drama. Twice Schiavone served for the match but could not take her chance. Six times, Kuznetsova had match point but six times she was denied.
When Schiavone forced her first match point, someone in the crowd yelled "finish it" but the Russian saved it and then another. Finally, on her third match point, Schiavone put a forehand volley away to clinch a dramatic victory, jumped in the air before staggering to the net to console the two-times grand slam champion Kuznetsova, who had given everything.
It was a bitter pill for Kuznetsova to swallow, especially after she had beaten the former world No1 Justine Henin in the previous round. "I just feel very empty," she said. "Maybe in a few days I will watch the video and understand more about it. It's too hard to talk about it right now."
Incredibly, it was still well short of the longest women's match of all time. That honour is held by Vicki Nelson and Jean Hepner, two Americans who battled it out for 6hr 31min in a tournament in Richmond, Virginia, in 1984. The match, which was won 6-4, 7-6 by Nelson, included a rally of 643 shots which lasted 29 minutes while the second-set tie-break alone lasted 1hr 47min.
Schiavone and Kuznetsova have always been two of the fittest players on tour and two of the fiercest competitors but few would have believed they could play so well, for so long. For a long time, Kuznetsova looked the likelier winner and never more so than when she led 8-7 and 40-0 on the Italian's serve in the decider. But Schiavone would not wilt and she saved all three and three more in her next service game to stay on level terms.
The Italian served for the match twice, at 10-9 and 11-10 only for the Russian to break back each time. At 14-14, Schiavone ended a brilliant rally with a forehand volley winner to break again and this time she took her chance, putting another forehand volley into the open court.
In the quarter-finalson Tuesday, she will play the world No1 Caroline Wozniacki, who must have enjoyed every moment of the third set as much as anyone. Whether Schiavone can bounce back to make a fight of it remains to be seen but having become the first Italian woman ever to win a grand slam title last summer, maybe nothing is beyond her.
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