Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych and Lukas Rosol beat Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli Saturday in the longest ever Davis Cup match, an exhausting clash which took 7 hours and one minute. The 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 24-22 Geneva epic surpassed the previous record of 6 hours 22 minutes which John McEnroe needed to beat Mats Wilander 9-7, 6-2, 15-17, 3-6, 8-6 in a tie between the United States and Sweden in 1982. Chiudinelli double-faulted on match point in a fifth set which lasted 3 hours 35 minutes, after he and his partner had saved 12 match points.

The Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych and Lukas Rosol on Saturday beat Stanislas Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland in the longest Davis Cup rubber of all time that took 7 hours and two minutes. The 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 24-22 win surpassed the previous record in the tournament when John McEnroe needed 6 hours and 22 minutes to beat Mats Wilander 9-7, 6-2, 15-17, 3-6, 8-6 in the tie between the United States and Sweden in 1982. Chiudinelli double-faulted on match point after he and his partner had earlier saved 12 match points.

By Greg Stutchbury MELBOURNE, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Novak Djokovic once had a reputation for wilting when the physical strain became too much - not anymore. In 2009, extreme heat forced him to retire during the quarter-finals at the Australian Open. The Serb was the defending champion and attracted some opprobrium from local media for his perceived lack of heart.

(Adds details, quotes) By Greg Stutchbury MELBOURNE, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Defending champion Novak Djokovic survived an early onslaught and a late fightback from Stanislas Wawrinka in a pulsating fourth-round clash to advance to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open early on Monday. The 15th-seeded Swiss had taken an early 6-1 5-2 lead over the world number one with a powerful serve and booming groundstrokes before Djokovic took greater control of the rallies and waited for Wawrinka to make mistakes.