Francesca Schiavone saves six match points to win longest game in history

In an absorbing contest reminiscent of last summer's Wimbledon epic between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut which the American won 70-68 in the fifth, Schiavone secured a place in the last eight after winning 6-4 1-6 16-14 in four hours and 44 minutes of drama at the Hisense Arena.

It bettered the previous women's grand slam record set at last year's Australian Open when Barbora Zahlavova Strycova beat Regina Kulikova in four hours and 19 minutes.

Schiavone, who will rise to No?4 when the new WTA rankings are released today, saved six match points during a deciding set which lasted exactly three hours.

The Italian will meet world No?1 Caroline Wozniacki next - the Dane has spent just five hours and 31 minutes on court in total in her four matches at Melbourne Park - and insisted she will be up for the challenge. "If you ask me now, I say no, but yeah, I'm young. I can run, I can do anything," she said. "I don't know how I will be on Tuesday but it will be good. Why not?"

Schiavone is making a habit of winning long matches in Melbourne this year after beating Rebecca Marino 9-7 in the third set in round two.

"That match helped me mentally for sure," she said. "Not physically, though, it was a tough match but not at such a high level as this. A win like that makes you more experienced so it was a good match for me."

Things do not get any easier for Schiavone and she expects another tough test against Wozniacki.

"She is number one in the world," said the 30-year old. "She is young but good mentally. She is a really tough player because she doesn't give you anything for free, you have to work for every point. I will have to be aggressive and play really well to beat her."

For Kuznetsova there was only disappointment. She won more games than Schiavone (24-23) and more points (181-177) but could not land the decisive blow.

She said: "I think she played well on the match points. I don't think I had an easy shot on any of them. The match could have gone either way so many times. I think it was just Francesca's day. We both fought so hard but at the important moments she played better."

Wozniacki had an interesting day.

She beat Anastasija Sevastova 6-3 6-4 in a scrappy affair to advance to the last eight for the first time in Melbourne before creating a media storm when she revealed she had sustained a cut to her leg after being attacked by a kangaroo.

Only when the story started to make waves did Wozniacki call a hastily-arranged press conference at which she sheepishly confessed it had been a joke and that she actually hurt herself running into a treadmill.

"I made it up because it sounded better than what actually happened," she said. "I was like .?.?. okay.?.?. kangaroo, we're in Australia, so a kangaroo scratched me. I thought that was a bit funny." On the court, there were no such slip-ups although the performance again failed to convince she has the quality to go all the way.

The Dane, who is chasing her first grand slam title, was functional rather than impressive but still possessed too much for her opponent.

Although she tops the rankings and has moved efficiently into the last eight, Wozniacki is still not the bookmakers' favourite as she sits behind Belgian Kim Clijsters in the betting.

Wozniacki, however, is unconcerned and hinted she had plenty more to offer.

She said: "I don't think it matters who is the favourite. Sometimes you just need to get through that period where you don't feel like you're playing your best tennis. I think that the real champions come through even though they're not playing at their highest level."

She added: "For me it doesn't really matter because when you go out there on the court you don't get a lead even though you're the favourite. So you just need to go out there and fight for every point."

Li Na, who got to the semi-finals here last year, is also through following a 6-3 6-3 victory over Victoria Azarenka.

In a hard-fought contest Li broke five times to advance to a meeting with Andrea Petkovic, who stunned Maria Sharapova 6-2 6-3.

Under pressure from the start, Sharapova committed 30 unforced errors in a performance which underlined her struggles since shoulder surgery in 2008, the year she won the last of her three grand slam singles titles in Melbourne. She fended off two match points with a pair of rocket forehand returns but Petkovic completed victory in 79 minutes with a deep serve Sharapova could only push into the net.

"It definitely wasn't there," said a rueful Sharapova, who since winning here three years ago has reached just one grand slam quarter-final.

"Last year I was gone on Monday. I stayed here a little bit longer this year. I didn't get my first break point until it was a set and 5-1. That's not the type of tennis I want to be playing."