Move over Caroline Wozniacki, we have a brand new pair of marathon women. Francesca Schiavone and 18th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova won’t be running the New York Marathon anytime soon (or at least we think they aren’t), but they just completed a marathon on the court. Schiavone defeated Kuznetsova 6-7(11), 7-5, 10-8 in three hours and fifty-four minutes, the third longest match in French Open history. This match was more than a marathon, it was an opera as well with their loud grunts being magnified because of the acoustics in Court 1 or more commonly know as the Bullring.

The first set went just about an hour and twenty minutes as it went into a tiebreaker. Both women broke once in the set, but it would be Schiavone who would be kicking herself over the rued opportunities. The Italian went one for nine on break opportunities while her Russian counterpart went one for three. It was a surprise Kuznetsova had even gotten to a tiebreak given all the chances Schiavone had to break and her low percentage of second serve points won. It was a drama-filled breaker as the Italian managed to save set point after set point, six in total. Kuznetsova was just better in the end to take the breaker 13-11.

The start of the second set was the same as the end of the first for Schiavone, more pain. She was broken right away to start the set, but the oldest player in the draw showed her resolve to break back and get another break to take the set 7-5. Schiavone did much better than her opponent on return points won. She won just under 50 percent of return points while Kuznetsova struggled winning under 40% of those points.

Since they do not play final set tiebreaks in Grand Slams other than the US Open, many were wondering whether or not they could match the four hour and forty-four minute marathon they had at the 2011 Australian Open (video below). However both women were clearly fatigued in the final set despite the score going to 10-8 to Schiavone. The stats were an indicator of that, well on their serve that is. Both women won half of their point or less on first serve and both won under 40 percent of points on their second serve. It looked like neither woman was interested in holding serve with the amount of breaks in the set. They combined to go 13 for 23 on break opportunities and won a higher percentage of points when receiving. Schiavone had seven of those thirteen breaks, and that one extra one allowed her to capture the match. Next up for Schiavone is Andreea Mitu, who upset Karolina Pliskova earlier in the day.

By the Numbers:

42: The total number of break point opportunities the women had. 18 of those were converted.

99: The number of combined winners from each woman. 56 came from Kuznetsova

306: The total number of points played. 160 of those won by Schiavone.