Italy's Francesca Schiavone is now preparing for her next match with World No.1 Carolline Wozniacki of Denmark, after beating Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Australian Open over the weekend.

The sixth seed Italian defeated 23rd seed Kuznetsova 6-4 1-6 16-14 as the two exchanged heated service returns at the Hisense Arena Sunday.

Lasting for four hours and 44 minutes, the match is now considered the 'record-length Open epic', as the third set stretched for three hours.

Kuznetsova succumbed to Schiavone's lightning strikes on the 29th game of the third set.
Although Kuznetsova had six match points midway through the marathon third set, The Sydney Morning Herald said that the current French Open champion Schiavone kept saving them, allowing her to set up a high quality climax to the match.

"In the third set we give everything, so when we finish I say to Svetlana 'really good job', Schiavone was quoted as saying by the The Sydney Morning Herald, emphasizing the 'respect' that the two have for each other.

Meanwhile, Schiavone said following her victory that she is looking forward to showing her son the DVD of her part in the longest grand slam women's singles match ever played. The match broke the previous women's grand slam record at the Australian Open last year set by Barbora Zahlavova Strycova when she defeated Regina Kulikova. It was almost half hour shorter than this year's as the game then lasted for four hours and 19 minutes in a first round match.