MELBOURNE (AFP) - Australian wildcard Jelena Dokic kept her remarkable story going when she upset Russia's Alisa Kleybanova 7-5, 5-7, 8-6 to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday.
Dokic will now play Dinara Safina after defeating the world number 31 in a three hour epic.
After entering the tournament ranked 187th in the world, Dokic finds herself playing the world number three for a place in the final four of the year's first Grand Slan.
It is a story that almost defies belief.
After bursting onto the scene in the late 1990s, Dokic stunned the tennis world when as a 15-year-old she beat then number one Martina Hingis in the first round of Wimbledon in 1999.
The following year she reached the semi-finals at the All England Club and by 2002 was the world number four with five WTA titles to her name.
But under the influence of now estranged father Damir, she fell out with Australian tennis officials and returned to her native Serbia, her tennis career suffering badly as a result.
By 2004 she was all but out of the game until she began her comeback late last year.
Dokic will finish the Australian Open inside the top 100, well on the way to her year-end goal of being ranked inside the top 50.
"I may have to change my goals now," she admitted after defeating her third seeded player in a row.
She ousted Anna Chakvetadze (seeded 17) in the second round and Caroline Wozniacki (11) in the third before accounting for Kleybanova (29).
But she had a big fright on the way when she fell heavily after twisting her ankle when returning a serve while leading 6-5 in the third set.
She got up and brushed aside the trainer's offer to strap her ankle at the next change of ends, came back on and held serve then broke Kleybanova to seal victory in three hours.
"My foot really got stuck," she said.
"But I kind of just think I lost one point after that, so maybe it was a little bit distracting to her as well.
"It was a little bit painful, but I looked at it and it wasn't swollen -- sometimes when it's a really bad strain it gets swollen straightaway.
"I thought I would try to play a point or two, and if it's not great I'll call a trainer straightaway."
Dokic said the strain of playing so many long matches was catching up with her.
"I was really physically exhausted tonight but I kept on fighting and the crowd got right behind me in the third set," she said.
"Every single match I've played has been three sets. I really had to come through in all of them."
Kleybanova, playing her first match on a major centre court, could have been forgiven for being slightly overawed by the occasion, but she was the steadier of the two players in the beginning.
Both players looked nervous throughout and holding serve was a continuous battle.
There were five breaks of serve in each of the first two sets, although both players steadied in the third, which then developed into a battle of nerves.
Kleybanova broke early in the third but Dokic struck back to level at 3-3, then games went with serve until Dokic made the vital breakthrough.
"It was hard to stay positive when I lost the second set and and went down a break in the third, but I just kept on fighting and it paid off," she said.
