Rogers continues dream run in Paris, moves into quarterfinals

May 29, 2016 09:09 AM

By Sally Milano, USTA.com

Shelby Rogers' dream run at the 2016 French Open continued Sunday, when she defeated No. 25 seed Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania, 6-3, 6-4, in the round of 16 to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time.

The 23-year-old from Charleston, S.C., becomes the first American other than Venus or Serena Williams to advance this far at the French Open since Lindsay Davenport was a quarterfinalist in 2005.

"This is a really incredible moment for me, and I'm really glad it didn't start raining," Rogers told Marion Bartoli in an on-court interview following the match. "I always dreamed it would happen, but I'm not sure I thought it could."

Rogers, whose previous best Grand Slam result was a third-round performance at the 2015 US Open, has had an impressive run in Paris thus far, beating No. 17 seed Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic in the first round, Elena Vesnina of Russia in the second round and two-time Wimbledon champion and No. 10 Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in the third round, before her win against Begu in the round of 16.

WATCH NOW: 2016 French Open: Shelby Rogers interview

Next up for Rogers is No. 4 seed and 2015 Wimbledon finalist Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain, who beat 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets to advance to the quarterfinals.

Rogers is playing at Roland Garros for the fourth time in her career. She reached the second round in her Paris debut in 2013 and lost in the first round in both 2014 and 2015.

With her victory Sunday, No. 108-ranked Rogers became the ninth player since 1983 to reach the Roland Garros quarterfinals while ranked outside of the Top 100 and the lowest-ranked player since 2012 to advance to the final eight, when qualifier and No. 142 Yaroslava Shvedova achieved the feat.

 

 

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