Lindsay Davenport
© AFP/Getty Images Nick Laham

NEW YORK (AFP) - Former champion Davenport fought off two match points against world number 23 Srebotnik to win 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) and reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows.

The 30-year-old American, who is playing in her 16th straight US Open, was on the court just a total of 92 minutes heading into Sunday's match.

She needed just 40 minutes to oust Croatia's Jelena Kostanic in the second round after routing Klara Zakopalova in 52 minutes in the opener.

But Davenport knew she was in for a fight early in Sunday's two hour encounter which was originally scheduled to be played Friday night.

Rains washed out the evening session and all of Saturday's action at the 18.5 million dollar event.

Davenport survived two match points while serving in the third set to send it into a tie-break.

Katarina Srebotnik
© AFP/Getty Images

She had surged out to a 3-1 lead earlier in the set and appeared to be cruising to a win when she allowed Srebotnik to win three straight.

Davenport hammered 10 aces but two in particular stand out. She broke Srebotnik in the eighth game of the second set then closed out the set with an ace to level the match at 1-1.

After fighting off the two match points to get to deuce, Davenport made another big statement on the next point by blasting an ace down the middle.

She won 94 of 187 points and fired 50 winners but she also committed 40 unforced errors and got in just 61 percent of her first serves.

The 10th seed Davenport will now play seventh seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland who also rallied to beat France's Marion Bartoli 0-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Davenport extended her career win streak over Srebotnik to 4-0 as her victory comes on the heels of a straight-set triumph at last week's New Haven tournament.

©AFP