Svetlana Kuznetsova and Francesca Schiavone are good friends, but occasionally they fight. They had a blowout in Fed Cup once, when neither was willing to shake the other’s hand. But after a few choice words in the locker room, they made up.
Today in Hisense Arena they fought each other tooth, nail, arm, leg, grunt, scream, choke, backhand and forehand, lob and drop, serve and overhead, flying volley and swinging volley, as well as one very long, strange stomach massage for Schiavone. It was the longest match in women’s Grand Slam history, at 4 hours, 44 minutes. Kuznetsova had six match points, and Schiavone squandered multiple break points late in the third, one when she ran into the net before her winning volley could bounce twice. Each shot seemed to elicit a louder grunt than the last. There were too many great plays and athletic moves and blown chances and everything else in between to count. It all became a blur of these two running and swinging and screaming. Schiavone made the last move with a winning overhead on her third match point at 15-14.
“It was one of the most emotional moments of my life,” she said as she walked off the court.
Kuznetsova had talked about her new fitness and new attitude, and she played fabulously and bravely for most of this one. But as always she played with risk, and on the brink of winning she couldn’t make the ball land where she wanted it to land. Schiavone had her own moments; serving at 10-9, she went up 30-0 before losing four straight points. But even as both of their legs got noticeably heavier in the latter stages, they continued to come up with some of their best tennis. The peak came at 14-14, when Schiavone hit a half-diving crosscourt forehand volley winner to break.
I was in and out of this one, and there was a special energy to the way the two women competed. I had said beforehand it would be “feisty,” but it went far beyond that. I wrote this morning that it was difficult to feel the visceral quality of the tennis inside Hisense Arena; that wasn’t even close to true for this one. In the third set, particularly in the middle games, you could see, hear, feel the desperation with which each of them were trying to win each point. Both are jocks, both hit with heavy spin and practically come of their shoes when they slug the ball—put that on opposite sides of the net and it made for something explosive.
As the games went on, we began to think about Isner-Mahut. The difference was that neither of these women were going to hit 100 aces—though Kuznetsova did hit 69 winners versus 68 errors. That meant they had to scrap for everything, which made the tennis itself more freewheeling and entertaining. And draining. Both women were punch drunk, but kept getting off the mat to drill one more winner and dig themselves out of one more seemingly hopeless moment.
Some long WTA matches end in a sea of errors—“women’s drama,” Kuznetsova calls it. This one had its miscues and chokes, but it also had its glorious saves and comebacks. Courage and frailty were on equal display. That’s why we’ll sit and watch a tennis match for 4 hours and 44 minutes. All of them those minutes were worth it.
Especially to the winner. Francesca Schiavone's coach, Corrado Barrazzutti, was known as the Little Soldier when he played. It was partly an insult directed at his plodding style. Schiavone could take the title away, but it would be no insult. Asked if she was going to get some sleep tonight, Schiavone smiled and shook her head. She didn’t know what she was going to do, or quite where she was. Only one thing came to mind: “Drink.” Here's hoping there's a little water with that wine.