Romanian tennis player Irina Begu qualified, on Saturday, for the round of 16 of the WTA Madrid Open 7,705,780 euros tournament in Madrid, after beating the American Shelby Rogers 7-5 6-2 .
Irina Begu (32 years old, 35 WTA) won after almost two hours of play (1 h 53 min).
Begu and Rogers (30 years old, 38 WTA) are tied, 2-2, in direct matches. The Romanian's only previous victory came this year, in Adelaide, in the first round, 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-1. The American prevailed in 2016, in the round of 16 at Roland Garros, with 6-3 6-4, and in 2021, in the third round at Indian Wells, with 6-0 6-2.
Rogers had passed Romanian Ana Bogdan in the second round, 6-2 6-2.
Irina Begu secured a 84,900 euros cheque and 120 WTA points, and in the eighths she will face the winner between the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko and the Russian Liudmila Samsonova.AGERPRES