Shelby Rogers produced one of the biggest shocks at this year’s French Open when she knocked out twice Wimbledon champion and 10th seed Petra Kvitova in the third round on Friday.
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Simona Halep rallied from a set down to beat 18-year-old Naomi Osaka 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 and advance to the fourth round at the French Open.
“It was very tough in the first set having to come back from 1-4 down”, said Halep.
8-Milos Raonic (Canada) beat Andrej Martin (Slovakia) 7-6(4) 6-2 6-3 – Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic overcame stiff initial resistance against Slovakia’s Andrej Martin.
The 22-year-old Venezuela-born Muguruza, who lost last years Wimbledon final to Williams, easily saw off the challenge of Belgiums Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-0, winning nine games in a row from 3-3 in the first set.
Three of the top seven women’s seeds have gone out of the French Open.
Spanish fourth seed Garbine Muguruza flourished in the Roland Garros sunshine as her power game proved too much for Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer in a 6-3 6-0 third-round win on Friday.
“It wasn’t easy, and at the same time, I think she was a little nervous”. She went on to reach the quarter-finals – in which she lost to the eventual champion, Maria Sharapova – and repeated the feat a year ago before going out to Lucie Safarova.
Kvitova, a semi-finalist in 2012, committed 36 unforced errors as 23-year-old Rogers reached the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time.
With the Spaniard only two games away, Muguruza was ruthless, not dropping a point on her way to a dominant bagel set to move into the third round in Paris.
Stan Wawrinka, the defending men’s champion, reached the third round by beating Japan’s Taro Daniel 7-6, 6-3, 6-4.
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Muguruza won 84 percent of the points on her first serve, clinched all of her eight points playing from the net, and broke her opponent five times while remaining unbroken on her serve to cruise for an effortless 6-2 6-0 triumph. The Japanese secured a third-round meeting with Fernando Verdasco after recording his second successive straight-sets victory when he beat Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
