PARIS -- She is the No. 8 ranked woman in the world. She has a Grand Slam title (doubles, 1996, Australian Open), two quarterfinal appearances here at the French Open and a semifinal at Wimbledon. She has won five professional titles and has represented the United States in the Olympics.

	Since returning from knee surgery last year, Chanda Rubin raised her rank into the top 10 for the first time since 1996.

Who is this gifted tennis player? Hint: her name is not Serena, Venus, Jennifer, Lindsay or Monica.

Her name is Chanda Rubin and at 27 years old, she is playing some of the best tennis of her life.

And yet, for 12 professional seasons there has always been someone ahead of her in line, deflecting the attention. See the above list of names. Before Friday's matches at Roland Garros, there was a huge buzz about 18-year-old American Ashley Harkleroad, who also had worked her way into the third round.

But Harkleroad, her emotional tank empty, lost to Spain's Magui Serna in three sets -- a headline, nonetheless. Meanwhile, with the stealth of a panther, the No. 8-seeded Rubin crept into the Round of 16. Rubin lost the first set to fellow American Laura Granville 2-6, but rallied to win the last two sets 6-1 and 6-3. The last set consumed a bone-wearying 40 minutes -- the exact length of Serena Williams' victory against Barbara Schett.

"I felt like I should shake it off, definitely," Rubin said later. "You know, I like my chances. Any time I'm in a third set and, you know, this is a big occasion, I feel like I'm the favorite. In the first set, I didn't play as well.

"I knew that once I cleaned that up, I was really going to give myself a chance to then get into the match and really force her a little bit more."

It was a typically anonymous match for Rubin. Court Philippe Chatrier was jammed for the Andre Agassi match that preceded hers, but most of the crowd evacuated and headed for the Carlos Moya-Juan Ignacio Chela match over at Suzanne Lenglen.

They missed two sets of precision tennis that has carved out a nice little living for Rubin. She is the oldest player in the women's top 10 and she has overcome two knee surgeries in the last two years. She is enjoying a renaissance here; her return to the top 10 this past March followed a fallow period of five years and five months.

Rubin is absolutely fearless. Here in 1995, she trailed Jana Novotna 0-5, love-40 in the third set of their Round of 16 match. Somehow, she won, saving an incredible nine match points in the process. She holds the record for the longest women's matches at both Wimbledon (beating Patty Hy-Boulais 7-6, 6-7, 17-15 in three hours, 45 minutes at Wimbledon in 1995) and the Australian Open (defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 6-4, 2-6, 16-14 in three hours, 33 minutes in 1996). She's also one of four women to have beaten Serena Williams since last year's French Open. (The others are Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Amelie Mauresmo.)

After the first set against Granville, Rubin seemed destined for an early exit. Granville, 22, actually lost in the first round of qualifying here last year when she was ranked No. 150, but made it into the main draw this year as the No. 31 seed. She had beaten Rubin in their only previous meeting, earlier this year in Scottsdale, winning the last two sets 6-2, 6-1. But in the second set, she came unstrung.

It's possible that this could turn out to be the best year of Rubin's career. She reached the Round of 16 at Australia (losing to Anastasia Myskina) and ran all the way into the semifinals before hitting a wall named Capriati. After two one-and-outs in Berlin and Rome, Rubin set the table for Paris by winning a modest tournament in Madrid. She won all four of her matches there and now has a snappy seven-match streak going.

She now faces unseeded Petra Mandula of Hungary. She appears destined to meet No. 4 seed Henin-Hardenne in the quarterfinals.

"I think every match here is a match where I have to get down and be ready to dig through some points, be a little more patient, stay in some rallies," Rubin said. "But I feel like I'm as good a person -- once anybody's in the quarterfinals, you're in the second week, it's anybody's tournament then, it's a whole new ballgame."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.