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 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.
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.
Schiavone, a 30-year-old with one of the game’s best one-handed backhands, already had tried but failed to serve the match on two other occasions during the third set, but the only one with regrets on Sunday turned out to be Kuznetsova as Schiavone closed it out on her third match point.
The match could go either way so many times," Kuznetsova said. "I think it just was really a day of Francesca. We both fight so hard the whole match, and the important moments she just played better. But statistically I also felt like I was better player on the court. I played better. Just very disappointing. Sometimes I guess it happens in tennis like it happened today.
It has never happened for quite as long as this for the women at a major event. The record for the longest recorded women’s singles match in a Grand Slam tournament was set last year at the Australian Open, when Barbora Zahlavova Strycova defeated Regina Kulikova in a first-round match that lasted 4 hours and 19 minutes.
