Melbourne — Unseeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won a marathon three-setter against American fifth seed Sloane Stephens 6-7(3) 6-3 6-3 to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals on Sunday and match her best show in Grand Slams. The Russian reached her second quarterfinal at Melbourne Park after her 2017 run and will now meet another American in Danielle Collins for a place in the last four. Stephens, who won the US Open in 2017, started strongly by gaining a 4-1 advantage but her Russian opponent got the break back before the 25-year-old American won the set via a tiebreaker. The second set started in similar fashion with Stephens breaking early to notch up a 2-0 lead before another fight-back from the 27-year-old Pavlyuchenkova. The Russian got back on serve in the fourth game before breaking Stephens to go up 5-3 and then converted her third set point to level the match. In the first game of the third set, Stephens saved eight break-points to hold in a marathon game that las...
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