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Australian Open: Simona Halep saves match points to beat Lauren Davis in epic

World number one Simona Halep survived an epic battle with unseeded American Lauren Davis to reach the Australian Open fourth round.

The Romanian, 26, had to save three match points in the decider before eventually winning 4-6 6-4 15-13 after three hours and 45 minutes.

The final set lasted 142 minutes before Halep finally secured victory.

The contest equalled the women's singles Australian Open record for longest match in terms of games played.

Halep will play Australian 18th seed Ashleigh Barty or Japan's Naomi Osaka in the last 16.

She served for the match at 5-4, 6-5 and 8-7 in the third set but was denied and later recovered from 0-40 on her own serve with the score 11-10 to the impressive world number 76 Davis.