Whenever Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova meet, one thing that you can be absolutely sure about is that you would not get bored as there would be some majestic tennis on show.

It seems these girls have got the measure of each other. There would rarely be a one sided match when they are on the court.

Yesterday’s outing in the French Open was no exception either. It went all the way down to the wire yet again. In the third and final set, Kuznetsova came close to winning the match on numerous occasions, but, her veteran opponent was just not ready to throw the towel in.

The intensity that Schiavone played with, you could not make out from outside that she’s approaching her mid thirties.

She was up for the fight every single second and with that sort of hunger and passion, she always had to come on top. With a superbly timed backhand, the Italian put a full stop on the proceedings which went on for 230 minutes. 7-6, 5-7, 10-8 were the final figures of the match in the favour of Schiavone. It was still not the longest match played between Kuznetsova and Schiavone though.

The one at Melbourne Park in 2011 was 284-minute long and it was Schiavone who had clinched the match there as well.

In the post match interview, when Schiavone was asked why the two of them always tend to put up such marathon shows, she said, “Maybe we have got the idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each other. It’s really quite thrilling to play against her. She’s a fantastic player with a lot of skills.”

When asked how many years she thinks she has got left in her, the French Open Champion of 2010 said, “A little bit is still left, that’s for sure.”