Viktorija Golubic and Aliaksandra Sasnovich mounted dramatic comebacks at the Transylvania Open on Tuesday, each saving match points to win three-set battles on Court 2 in Cluj-Napoca.
Cluj-Napoca: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Golubic, first up, fended off two to defeat Arantxa Rus 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(10) in 3 hours and 30 minutes -- the longest tour-level match of the 2025 season. The 32-year-old Swiss player has been resurgent since winning her second Hologic WTA Tour title in Jiujiang last October -- a tournament where she also came through a marathon against Rus, winning 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in a 3-hour, 24-minute quarterfinal.
This time round, Golubic needed six more minutes to seal victory in the joint-third longest regular (first to seven) third-set tiebreak of the 2020s. She had saved one match point serving down 6-5 in the decider, and a second in the tiebreak, but missed her first four opportunities. However, she flashed a brilliant one-handed backhand to set up a fifth, and converted as Rus netted a forehand.
The 12-10 third-set tiebreak scoreline matches Petra Kvitova's 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(10) defeat of Garbiñe Muguruza in the 2022 US Open second round (before the tournament instituted first-to-10 third-set tiebreaks). This decade, only two matches have exceeded it: Kvitova's 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(11) defeat of Jessica Pegula in the fourth round of Indian Wells 2023, and Barbora Krejcikova's 0-6, 6-4, 7-6(12) victory over Anett Kontaveit in the 2022 Sydney semifinals.
Photos: All of 2025's winners from match point down | All of 2025's three-hour matches
The drama continued on Court 2 as lucky loser Aliaksandra Sasnovich saved five match points en route to defeating No. 6 seed Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-7(0), 7-5, 6-4 in 2 hours and 53 minutes. The 30-year-old, a last-minute replacement after Laura Siegemund withdrew due to a lower leg injury, faced all five serving down 5-4 in the second set, and saved two with emphatic overheads.
The result marks the most match points saved en route to a victory in a WTA main-draw match since Viktoriya Tomova also saved five in last June's Bad Homburg quarterfinals against Anna Blinkova, winning 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(9).
