Third seed Dinara Safina survived two match points against France’s Alize Cornet to claw her way into the quarter-finals of the Austral ian Open with a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 win on Sunday.

The Russian appeared certain to follow Jelena Jankovic, Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic out of the tournament when Cornet was serving for the match at 5-4 and 40-15, but she somehow clung in there and dug herself out of trouble.

Three games later Safina was raising her arms in triumph as Cornet was slumped in a chair in tears, her dreams of joining fellow Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in the quarter-finals in tatters.