Ivanovic made to battle hard in Brisbane

SYDNEY (Reuters) - French Open champion Ana Ivanovic survived two match points before sealing her place in the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International on Wednesday.

On a day when all the leading players were made to work overtime at the Australian Open warm-up tournament, Amelie Mauresmo and her French compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were also lucky to stay alive.

Top seed Ivanovic lost her opening set tiebreaker and was twice down match point in the second set but regained her composure to scramble past Italian qualifier Roberta Vinci 6-7 7-5 6-1.

Ivanovic said her mental strength allowed her to keep her title hopes on track.

"I went through a lot last year, both good and bad," the Serbian, runner up in Melbourne Park last January, told reporters.

"When you get through tough times it makes you stronger. That definitely happened to me... I definitely feel mentally tougher."

Next up for Ivanovic will be Mauresmo.

The former world number one spent more than three hours on court, including 89 minutes for the deciding third set, before beating fellow Frenchwoman Julie Coin 5-7 6-2 7-6.

It was the longest match of her career and an exhausted Mauresmo said she could not believe how many chances she wasted.

"I really don't know what to say about this match," the former Australian Open champion told reporters.

"I'm just glad that I won it because it would have really been the 'missed-occasions match' if I didn't. That's the good and positive point for today.

"Other than that it's a lot of ups and downs and frustration because I was not able to make the difference when I was supposed to and I had so many break points and was not able to convert them."

Coin, who only made it into the main draw when Russian eighth seed Maria Kirilenko pulled out, was overawed the first time she played Mauresmo last year but adopted a more positive approach this time.

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"Last time when I played her I was kind of nervous because it was her... when I was younger she was an idol," Coin said.

"This time I tried to take more risks and play my game. It almost worked out."

Tsonga also had a torrid time in his clash with Finland's Jarkko Nieminen, clawing back from a terrible start to win 0-6 7-6 7-6.

Last year's Australian Open runner-up seemingly had no answer to the Finn as he conceded the first set in less than half an hour and was facing an early exit before he rallied to win both tiebreakers.

Spanish third seed Fernando Verdasco had a much easier time in disposing of Croatia's Mario Ancic 6-2 6-3 while Latvia's Ernests Gulbis crashed back to earth after his first round win over Novak Djokovic when he lost 6-3 6-4 to France's Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Florent Serra provided France with their fourth success of the day when he eliminated Juergen Melzer 6-4 6-3.

Japan's Kei Nishikori continued to underline his credentials as a future top 10 player when he upset fifth seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 7-6 6-3.

(Reporting by Julian Linden, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Padraic Halpin)