There's a little part of Francesca Schiavone that doesn't mind winning this way.

The 2010 French Open champion rallied back from a match point down on Grandstand court to claim a three-set victory over unheralded South African Chanelle Scheepers. "It's great to come back after [a] fight like this," Schiavone said of her 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory.

At match point down in the second set, Schiavone, the No. 7 seed, looked primed to crash out of the US Open after an impressive 2010 campaign here. But the pesky Italian fought off the challenge from Scheepers, who came into this Open ranked no. 81 in the world.

Schiavone, who lost in a tremendous quarterfinal encounter with Venus Williams at last year's Open, came into the Open after a so-so summer, going 5-3 since Wimbledon. After saving a match point at 5-6 down, she fought off a tough challenge from the South African in the tiebreaker before breaking free at 3-all in the third set to gain a spot in the fourth round.

It is there that Schiavone will meet Russian Anastasia Pavyluchenkova in a rematch of their epic encounter at the French Open earlier this year. Schiavone won that battle in the quarterfinals, 1-6, 7-5, 7-5.

The 31-year-old Italian, who was also a finalist at this year's French Open, hit 31 winners in the match to Scheepers' 29. In total points won, Schiavone just edged out Scheepers, 109 to 106.

Said Schiavone of her nearly three-hour win: "I think sometimes I could play a little bit less. But sometimes I have to say that I am like this  I hope to take the chance when I can to finish before, try to finish when it's time to finish, two sets, then go too long. But, for example, the match in Australian Open we went two, three sets, so long, but we played amazing, both of us. So sometimes you have to say, Okay, that's long match. And I don't play like Serena, boom, boom. I'm not like this. So I have to work harder."