John Isner keeping hopes high for Americans in Paris

2:53 PM ET

PARIS — At 6-foot-10, John Isner is uncommonly long. His matches, too, tend to run in that direction.

Which is why the No. 15 seed wasn’t too exercised Friday evening after another draining victory, this one a five-set affair against Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili that clocked in at 3 hours, 7 minutes.

“Obviously, I’ve been out there a lot longer in five sets,” he said, smiling, in his postmatch news conference.

John Isner is one win away from reaching the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the second time. Julian Finney/Getty Images

Isner, of course, has a history — the history, actually — when it comes to marathon matches. Six years ago at Wimbledon, he beat Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set of a bout that stretched over three days and required 11 hours, 5 minutes, the longest in tennis history.

Isner’s reward for a spirited 7-6 (7), 4-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory Friday is a berth in the fourth round, where he will play No. 2 seed Andy Murray on Sunday. As it turned out, Murray needed 10 sets to slog through his first two matches here before beating Ivo Karlovic with relative ease, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (3).

The other headline for American tennis was 23-year-old Shelby Rogers, who earlier defeated No. 10 seed Petra Kvitova with the manic score line of 6-0, 6-7 (3), 6-0, an exceedingly rare double-bagel sandwich. Rogers, who beat No. 17-seeded Karolina Pliskova in the first round, gets a crack at a third seeded player — No. 25 Irina-Camelia Begu.

Saturday, No. 1 seed Serena Williams, No. 9 seed Venus William and No. 15 seed Madison Keys will attempt to join Rogers and Isner in the round of …

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