Third seed Jelena Jankovic thanked her fighting spirit, divine intervention and a large dose of luck after scrambling into the Australian Open second round on Monday.
The Serb saved three match points in a 2-6, 6-2, 12-10 win over Austrian Tamira Paszek, a marathon battle lasting three hours 10 minutes.
The 17-year-old Paszek served for the match five times in a third set which included 15 breaks of serve before Serb Jankovic sealed victory, falling to her knees in exhaustion.
"I was praying actually," Jankovic told reporters. "Please, God, help me get out of the situation. And I didn't want to go home, that was what was driving me, what was pushing me to go forward.
"I never gave up. It was like, God, please, be on my side today -- I haven't had luck this morning.
"The driver almost brought me to Albert Park [where the Australian Grand Prix is held]. He was thinking I was going to practice."
Jankovic was unhappy with her game, especially 66 unforced errors, but delighted to win.
"Mentally I really am happy, that's the most important thing," she said.
"I didn't play well, I'm not happy with that part, but just mentally, finding a way to win and hanging in there in those tough situations is what I'm really proud of."
After an error-strewn first two sets, the match turned into a nailbiting affair and Paszek, having led 4-1 and 5-3 in the decider, squandered one match point in the 10th game and two more in the 12th.
Paszek continued to attack and served for the match at 7-6, 8-7 and 9-8 but Jankovic finally broke again to win a contest that was 23 minutes short of the longest women's match in Australian Open history.
Jankovic had treatment for a lower back injury in the final set but expects to be fine for her next match, against Romanian Edina Gallovits.
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