Romanian tennis players Simona Halep and Irina Begu managed to qualify to the fourth round of the French Open at Roland Garros after victories on Friday.

Simona Halep, currently 6th in the WTA ranking of the best women’s tennis players in the world, had a difficult match against Japanese rising star Naomi Osaka. The 18-year old Japanese (no. 101 WTA), who was at her first grand slam tournament, managed to steal the first set from Halep, but the Romanian fought back and won the next two sets.

The match ended 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, and Simona Halep moved forward in the competition. She will play against Australian Samantha Stosur for a place in the quarter finals, where she may run into Polish star Agnieszka Radwanska (no. 2 WTA).

Meanwhile, Irina Begu (no. 28 WTA) managed to defeat Germany’s Annika Beck also in three sets (6-4, 2-6, 6-1) and will play against American Selby Rogers in the next round. Begu has had a very good clay season so far this year, reaching the quarter finals in Madrid and the semifinals in Rome.

Begu had a very hard match in the second round of the French Open against American Coco Vandeweghe. The two battled for more than 3 and a half hours, played two tiebreaks, and needed 18 games in the third set to settle the dispute. The Romanian won at the end (6-7, 7-6, 10-8).

While Simona Halep has already played a final at Roland Garros in 2014, which she lost to Russia’s Maria Sharapova, for Irina Begu reaching the fourth round is her best result at the French Open so far. If she manages to get through to the quarterfinals, it would be her best performance at a grand slam tournament so far.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Irina Begu on Facebook)