Russian women's world number three Svetlana Kuznetsova has survived a late-night scare against German qualifier Angelique Kerber to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Tennis Open.
Kuznetsova made a shaky start to a match that began after after midnight last night (NZ time) and needed a huge fight to win 3-6 7-5 6-4.
Kerber, the world number 118, has never beaten a player ranked inside the top 30, but the solidly-built and hard-hitting left-hander pushed Kuznetsova right to the finish.
The Russian had to stave off two break points as she served for the match and needed two match points to clinch it.
The third seed will next play fellow Russian Nadia Petrova, who earlier in the night handed Kim Clijsters a surprisingly easy 6-0 6-1 thrashing.
Clijsters joined fellow former world number one Jelena Jankovic and 11th seed Marion Bartoli on a highly-rated casualty list for the day.
