Australian Open: 4 longest women's singles matches

#2 Barbora Strycova vs Regina Kulikova, 1st Round, 2010

Barbora Strycova

The 1st round match at the Australian Open 2010 between Barbora Strycova and Russian qualifier Regina Kulikova was a history making match. Things started to get interesting in the very beginning itself with both the players quickly trading breaks of serve.

That wasn't all, as both women went at saving break point opportunities too. Both Strycova and Kulikova had to save two of them in the first set. The set then went to a tiebreak where Strycova got the crucial mini-break and took it 7-6(7-5).

The second set was an exact repeat of the first set as again both women battled it out for every single point. Although both players weren't serving really great, their tenacity to win and save break point opportunities made this match a classic. The second set tiebreak saw Kulikova grab the initiative with two mini-breaks and took it 10-8.

The third set was somewhat mellowed down as Strycova upped her first serve percentage and didn't provide her opponent with any opportunity to break . A single break of Kulikova's serve was enough as the Czech took the set, and the match, 7-6(7-5), 6-7(8-10), 6-3 in 4 hours and 19 minutes.