Peng Shuai claimed her first win over Petra Kvitova after eight meetings in dramatic fashion at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
The Chinese number one had only taken two sets previously from the two-time Wimbledon champion and Kvitova's head-to-head dominance hardly appeared in danger when she held three set points in the opening tie-break.
But Peng won two of the three tie-break sets to knock out the defending champion 7-6 (9/7) 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (7-3) in the longest tour-level match of the season at three hours and 34 minutes.
The match surpassed the Shelby Rogers-Daria Gavrilova US Open epic (three hours 33 minutes) but trails the Australian Open classic between Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic by two minutes.
In what will go down as one of the most memorable matches of 2017, Kvitova struck a stunning 63 winners to only 36 unforced errors.
Peng hit 30 winners of her own to just 25 unforced errors, and ended up winning four more points - 133 to 129.
"It's probably the longest match I've ever played, and it was really up and down," Kvitova said.
"I hadn't practiced too much before this tournament but I played a lot today!
"I'm not usually the player who plays such long matches and I was cramping a little at the end, so I was proud of how I was still able to fight."
Awaiting Peng in the second round is 2016 Olympic champion Monica Puig, who won an emotionally charged first round of her own over Mona Barthel, winning, 6-0 6-7 (0/7) 6-4.
Off the court, the first and only Puerto Rican Olympic Gold medallist has been spreading awareness about the state of her home country following Hurricane Maria.
Great Britain's Johanna Konta lost 6-0 4-6 7-6 (7/3) to Australian Ashleigh Barty - her fourth successive defeat - a nd Holland's Kiki Bertens beat Monica Niculescu, of Romania, 6-2 6-1.
Agnieszka Radwanska, Alize Cornet and Lauren Davies were among the day's winners, but former world number one Angelique Kerber lost 3-6 6-3 6-1 to Caroline Garcia.
Source: PA
