Daria Gavrilova has saved two match points to continue her excellent Italian Open record with an epic three-set second-round win over reigning Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza.
Gavrilova battled back from 4-0 down in the deciding set to eventually haul in the Spaniard 5-7 6-2 7-6 (8-6) after three hours and eight minutes in a midnight thriller that started on Wednesday night and ended just past 2am on Thursday morning.
Muguruza is the fourth French Open champion or past or current world No.1 that Gavrilova has beaten in Rome, with her reward being a third-round shot at superstar Maria Sharapova.
Gavrilova now boasts a 15-3 career win-loss reocrd in the Italian capital, with her other heavyweight scalps including two-time Roland Garros finalist and incumbent world No.1 Simona Halep, 2008 French Open winner Ana Ivanovic and 2009 champ Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Trailing two breaks in the third set against Muguruza, a fatiguing Gavrilova looked gone.
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But Australia's world No.24 refused to give up, holding serve to stop the rot and take the wind out of the 2016 French Open champion's sails.
Gavrilova went on to reel off four games in a row to nudge ahead 5-4 but needed to stave off one match point to force the deciding tiebreaker.
The 23-year-old saved another match point in the breaker before closing out the fourth-longest women's encounter of the year.
