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BRISBANE, Australia -- Amelie Mauresmo recovered from 2-5 down in the third set to beat French compatriot Julie Coin 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (11) at the Brisbane International on Wednesday in the longest tour match of her career.
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The former No. 1-ranked Mauresmo needed five match points and 3 hours, 14 minutes to overcome Coin, who also had three match points.
Coin, who is ranked 95th and only got a place in the draw when eighth-seeded Maria Kirilenko withdrew, ended the 89-minute third set when she pushed a backhand past the baseline.
"I felt it was long, so long," said Mauresmo, who played 3:07 in her victory against Mary Pierce at the WTA Championships final in 2005. "It's tough. I'm tight everywhere. A lot of work for my physio."
The 29-year-old, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon and held the No. 1 ranking in 2006, double-faulted on her first match point at 6-4 in the tiebreaker.
She had served for the first set at 5-4 but was broken twice.
In the end, she converted five of her 20 break-point chances and fended off 11 of 15 she faced.
"Too many mistakes, too many missed chances -- yeah, it was a strange one," said Mauresmo, who had to ask how many match points she had but knew about her 10 double-faults.
"I really don't know what to say about this match. I'm just glad I won it because it would have really been the 'missed-occasions match' if I didn't. That's the good and positive point for today."
Mauresmo, now ranked No. 23 and seeded fifth here, will next play the winner of a Wednesday night match between top-seeded Ana Ivanovic and Italian qualifier Roberta Vinci.
In an earlier second-round match, Italy's Sara Errani beat Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-3.
On the men's side, Ernests Gulbis lost in the second round 6-3, 6-4 to Paul-Henri Mathieu a day after upsetting top-seeded Novak Djokovic.
Mathieu was one of three Frenchmen advancing: No. 6-ranked Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was broken three times in the first set but recovered to beat Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 0-6, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5), while Florent Serra beat Austria's Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 6-3.
The second-seeded Tsonga, who lost the 2008 Australian Open final to Djokovic, found his range with his powerful forehand in the second and third sets and overturned the result of his only previous match with Nieminen -- a loss in the semifinals at Adelaide last year.
Third-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain beat Croatia's Mario Ancic 6-2, 6-3.
