Siegemund wins longest women's tour-level tennis match in 13 years

Germany's Laura Siegemund has won the longest women's tour-level tennis match at the WTA Tour in 13 years.

Siegemund defeated China's Wang Xiyu 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 7-6 (7-1) in four hours and nine minutes on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Thailand Open.

"I'm happy that I won. I think it was a good match. Maybe there were a few moments, in which there were a few more mistakes, but overall we fought very hard," Siegemund said.

In the end, it was "just a battle" in which it was all about physical strength and mentality.

According to the WTA, it was the first time since 2011 that two tennis players on the tour were on court for longer than four hours.

Back then, Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova and Italy's Francesca Schiavone duelled for 4:44 hours at the Australian Open, making it the longest women's match at a Grand Slam tournament in the professional era.