Flavia Pennetta has reached her first ever Australian Open singles quarter-final by beating ninth seed Angelique Kerber 6-1 4-6 7-5 in a topsy-turvy battle on Rod Laver Arena.

The Italian, who won the women's doubles at the Melbourne Grand Slam alongside Gisela Dulko in 2011, will meet either Li Na or Ekaterina Makarova in the last eight.

Kerber saved two break points en route to holding serve in the opening game of the match, but Pennetta responded by reeling off six straight games to take the first set after just 24 minutes.

Pennetta began the second set with a double fault and was swiftly broken. Four more breaks of serve were then shared evenly, resulting in Kerber levelling the match with 67 minutes on the clock.

Kerber was first to break serve in the final set, establishing a 3-1 lead. However, Pennetta stormed back to move 5-3 ahead.

The world number 29 produced her second double fault of the day when serving for the match, allowing Kerber to get the vital break back.

After the next two games had gone with serve, Pennetta finally sealed her place in the next round, taking game 12 to 15 by converting her 18th break point of the match.

Pennetta, who produced 43 winners and 37 unforced errors, won 21 points more than her opponent.