Stosur survives, makes history again

Australia’s Samantha Stosur regrouped after a marathon second-set tiebreak to advance past Russian Maria Kirilenko into the US Open quarter-finals.

The number nine seed blasted her way through the first set in half an hour before dropping the second in the longest tiebreak in women’s grand slam singles history.

After an extended break Stosur came back out onto the grandstand court and eventually took control of the fourth round encounter to win 6-2, 6-7 (15/17), 6-3 on the seventh match point of the contest.

Just two nights earlier, Australia’s last remaining hope at Flushing Meadows beat Nadia Petrova in three hours, 16 minutes - the longest women’s singles contest at the tournament during the Open era.  This time around it only took her two hours and 37 minutes, but she was visibly drained by the end of the battle. Having bowed out in the third round at the Australian and French Opens and losing her opening match at Wimbledon, the clash with Kirilenko marked the furthest Stosur had made it through a major tournament this year.

Stosur’s best US Open campaign was in 2010 when she lost to eventual champion Kim Clijsters in three sets in the quarter-finals.

Kirilenko also came into the encounter off the back of a long third-round match-up in which Ekaterina Makarova took her to three sets.