Serena Williams' quest to break Margaret Court's Grand Slam tally will have to wait after the American suffered a shock third round defeat to Qiang Wang on Rod Laver Arena on Friday.

Williams had been hoping to equal court's record of 24, but came fell agonisingly short in a three-set epic.

After winning the opening set and going up a break in the second, China's world number 29 was faltered while serving for the win, allowing Williams to stage a remarkable comeback as the match stretched over the two hour mark.

The third set was tense and closely fought for 11 games until Williams blinked first at the most crucial moment.

Serving to stay in the match, the American veteran went down 15-40 but fought back to deuce before Wang converted her third matchpoint opportunity for a 6-4 6-7(2) 7-5 win.

A quarter-finalist at last year's US Open, Wang's win over Williams equals her best performance at Melbourne Park, after her fourth round defeat to Anastasija Sevastova last year.

Williams' last Grand Slam win came at the 2017 Australian Open, and has lost four major finals - two at Wimbledon and two at the US Open.

MORE: Live results, highlights and updates from the Australian Open

Wang will play Ons Jabeur in Sunday's fourth round after the Tunisian earned a three-set win over Caroline Wozniacki.

Ons' 7-5 3-6 7-5 win ends Wozniacki's professional career after the 2018 Australian Open champion and former world number one announced her retirement in December.

Wang, China's top ranked player, saved four breakpoints across two service games in the opening set, then quickly went up 0-40 on Williams' serve.

The 27th seed made no mistakes on capitalising on the opening, hitting a forehand winner for the break, before holding serve to take the first set 6-4.





A desperate Williams mounted a comeback in the second set, but was only making a little over 50% on first serve and coughed up three times as many unforced errors as Wang.

The 28-year-old Wang went up a break in Williams' third service game of the second set and consolidated to put herself within touching distance of the biggest win of her career.

Made to serve for the victory, Wang went behind 0-30 and 15-40, and - having already saved five breakpoints in the match - couldn't fend off another one as Serena kept herself alive with a forehand winner after a long rally.

Never count out SERENA!



In a 24-shot rally, Williams rips a cross-court forehand winner to break Wang and keep her tournament hopes alive.#AO2020 | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/MRAyMXMquA — #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 24, 2020





With the near-capacity crowd sensing a change of momentum, Serena saved two breakpoints for 6-5 and Wang held easily for a second set tiebreak.

The tiebreak was all Williams, showing her experience in clutch moments to force a third set.

The pair remained on serve until a wayward Williams service game gave Wang another chance to take the win. This time looking for a match-deciding break, she held steady as Williams hit to the net to end her Australian Open.

It was the first set Wang dropped all tournament after beating Pauline Parmentier 7-6(2) 6-3 and Fiona Ferro 6-1 6-2 in the opening two rounds.

Until Friday afternoon's match, Williams had looked like an unstoppable force, only dropping eight games in victories over Anastasia Potapova and Tamara Zidansek.