The dream lives on for Shelby Rogers. The unheralded American stormed into the third round of the French Open with a comprehensive straight-sets victory over Elena Vesnina on Wednesday. The 23-year-old will look to continue her fairy tale run later today when she takes on No. 10 seed Petra Kvitova in a mouth-watering round-of-32 clash.
Read on below for an in-depth breakdown of this matchup and while you’re at it, you can check out our preview of the much-anticipated showdown between Stan Wawrinka and Jeremy Chardy.
Petra Kvitova barged into the third round of the French Open for the sixth consecutive year with an emphatic 6-4, 6-1 win over Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday. Kvitova put forth an extreme masterclass, dominating the Taiwanese right from the get-go and finishing the match in just one hour and 10 minutes.
Key to Kvitova’s triumph was her much-improved service game. In her previous match against Danko Kovinic, Kvitova only converted 59 percent of her first serves. Kvitova was much better in that department this time around, winning 25 of her 33 first serve points for an impressive 76 percent success rate. That helped the Czech star in applying pressure against Hsieh as she kept the Taiwanese on the back foot for majority of the match.
Next up for Kvitova is a third-round clash with Shelby Rogers. This will be the first meeting between Kvitova and Rogers in the WTA Tour. For Kvitova to beat Rogers, she needs to continue her excellent return play. She converted four of her six break point opportunities in her win against Hsieh.
Shelby Rogers moved into the third round of the 2016 French Open with a resounding 6-4, 6-2 win over Elena Vesnina on Wednesday. It was a fantastic performance by Rogers who needed just one hour and 28 minutes to record the straight-sets victory. With the win, Rogers reached the last 32 at Roland Garros for the first time in her career.
Providing the impetus for Rogers’ victory was her excellent return. She converted five of her nine break point chances against Vesnina. Rogers also found some success in her occasional forays to the net, winning six of her seven points there. She has now won 76 percent (13-of-17) of her net points in this tournament thus far.
For Rogers to continue her giant-killing ways today, she needs to find a way to limit her miscues. She’s averaging 25.5 unforced errors over her first two matches in this tournament thus far. That’s trouble against Kvitova who rifled in 27 winners in her second-round victory against Hsieh.
Rogers is 5-5 in her last 10 matches.
Writer’s Prediction
Kvitova (-380) ekes past Rogers in three tough sets.
