Daria Saville battles past Lucia Bronzetti to reach Miami Open quarters

Australian Daria Saville has maintained her excellent form to come from a set down to beat Lucia Bronzetti and reach the last eight of the Miami Open.

Saville won 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 to make it nine wins in her last 11 tour matches. She will now play either Swiss number 22 seed Belinda Bencic or Aliaksandra Sasnovich in her first quarter-final in Miami.

Bronzetti, who beat Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic in the opening round for her first win over a top 50 player, had match point in the third set but Saville fired in an unreturned serve.

The Australian subsequently took the match after one minute shy of three hours of play under the Florida sun.

The Italian had won the opening set in 54 minutes. It was the first set Saville had dropped in Miami, and a surprise after the Australian raced into a 3-0 lead on service.

Saville led again at 5-3, 30-all, but lost four games on the spin to concede the first set, concluding with a double-fault.

Saville disappeared for a toilet break, having originally arrived with her shirt inside out and having to change courtside.

The second set saw her break serve in the third game, establishing an advantage she did not relinquish.

In the final set Bronzetti broke to lead 5-3, but Saville immediately broke back. The Italian forced a break-point match-point, but Saville's serve ended the threat and she went on to hold, break to love, and hold again, clinching the encounter on her first match point.

Saville, ranked 249 in the world but a former top 20 player, came into the tournament as a wild card. Bronzetti, ranked 102, was a lucky loser.

The Australian has climbed a staggering 500 spots in the world rankings since February, and if she wins her quarter-final, will crack back into the top 100.

AAP/ABC