Australian Open: 4 longest women's singles matches

#1 Francesca Schiavone vs Svetlana Kuznetsova, 4th Round, 2011

Francesca Schiavone

The longest ever Grand Slam women's singles match took place in the 4th round encounter between 23rd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and 6th seed, and reigning French Open champion, Francesca Schiavone. Hisense Arena was the place to witness one of the most compelling and nail biting matches of all-time.

With a single break, Schiavone raced ahead to take the opening set 6-4. However, the 30-year-old, started to make a lot of unforced errors on her serve in the second set, handing Kuznetsova the initiative to level the match by giving it way, 6-1.

The third set was when all the drama unfolded. Leading by a score of 8-7 in the deciding set and having 3 match point opportunities at 0-40 on the Schiavone serve, Kuznetsova made a couple of costly unforced errors and the the tenacious Italian held on to level the match.

Then at 10-9 and 11-10, it was Schiavone's turn to serve for the match but both times, it was Kuznetsova who refused to back away and broke the Italian's serve, and after a pulsating 4 hours and 44 minutes, Schiavone finally won the match and both players received an extended standing ovation as they shook hands at the net.

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