Polish superstar Iga Swiatek overcame both a dangerous opponent and her own frustrations on Wednesday to advance to the semifinals at Australian Open 2022.
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Trailing giant-killing Estonian Kaia Kanepi by a set and a break, Swiatek dug in to win 4-6 7-6(2) 6-3 in three sapping hours.
The seventh seed, who won Roland Garros in 2020, progresses to a Thursday night meeting with Danielle Collins, where she will play for a place in her second Grand Slam final.
MORE: AO 2022 women's singles draw
Apart from a scintillating match point, this was a gnarly contest beset with errors. Swiatek dished up a career-high 12 double faults, and both women combined for 112 unforced errors, compared with 66 winners.
But Swiatek played dependable tennis when it mattered in the tiebreak, and was able to fire enough resounding winners in the third set to eventually advance.
"This match was crazy," Swiatek said.
"In the first set I think my mistake was ... I had so many break points, that I felt like I missed my chances. She has broken me on her first break point, and I had like, I don't know, five? So I was pretty annoyed.
"I should have been focused on the future, on the next ball. And that's why in second set, I did exactly that.
"I felt like she's playing so fast that I can't be tight, so I had to finish my forehands. She played so great... it seemed like the ball is going out, it suddenly went in (laughter). That was my mistake, because I didn't run, but I felt like she's in a good shape, and she can play anything.
"After my match against Sorana (Cirstea in the fourth round), they (my team) told me they believed I'm gonna win, even though I lost the first set.
"So I remembered that today in the tiebreaker. It gave me a lot."
This was a heartbreaking loss for Kanepi, who now falls to 0-7 in Grand Slam quarterfinals.
Ranked 115th, the veteran has been as high as 15th, reaching her first major quarterfinal almost 14 years ago at Roland Garros.
All but one of her prior six quarterfinal defeats had been in straight sets; the time she came closest to an elusive semifinal was at Wimbledon in 2010, where she led 5-2 in the second-set tiebreak, and held a total of five match points, before Petra Kvitova stopped her 4-6 7-6(8) 8-6.
Throughout her career, Kanepi has notched 14 wins over top-10 players – and nine of those had come at Grand Slam tournaments.
She'd beaten one of them – world No.2 Aryna Sabalenka – to get to this point at AO 2022, and she looked destined to claim another elite victim when she finally, on her 10th set point, took the opening set against ninth-ranked Swiatek.
Winning the bulk of the short rallies, Kanepi broke serve immediately in the second by powering a cross-court backhand that wrong-footed Swiatek, who fell to the court as she lunged at it.
When Swiatek rebounded to build a 4-1 lead, it looked as if the 20-year-old had settled into the contest and worked her big-hitting opponent out.
But she screamed in frustration and sank to her knees after netting a backhand to hand the break back, and flung her racquet in disgust as Kanepi forced an error to level scores at 4-4.
It appeared to be completely unravelling for Swiatek as she double-faulted to open the next game. But to her credit, she reined in her emotions and her game, and survived to the ensuing tiebreak.
While Kanepi had been winning the bulk of short points – those less than five strokes – Swiatek was dominating the long rallies of 10-plus shots.
And when she won an intense 18-shot exchange, she led 5-2 in the tiebreak, and a wilting Kanepi sprayed two subsequent errors to find herself in a third set.
An off-court break did not help the Estonian, who was broken and fell behind 0-2 when play resumed.
But there was another twist, as Swiatek became brittle once again and surrendered the break back.
Still, Swiatek always seemed in charge of the final stanza.
Kanepi's game was increasingly error-strewn from the latter stages of the second set, and it cost her in the third, as she double-faulted to hand Swiatek a break point in the fifth game.
Swiatek converted, and surged to a 5-2 lead thanks to consecutive forehand and backhand winners, leaping in celebration as the finish line neared.
There she wobbled, playing a disastrous game when serving for the match, but her sizable lead provided a reassuring margin for error.
And in the very next game, she prevailed.