Beth Arnoult won her second-round wheelchair tennis match on Wednesday at the Paralympics, upsetting No. 6 Marie-Annick Sevenans of Belgium, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, in Beijing.

Arnoult, a 42-year-old from Pa'ia, Maui and seeded 20th, trailed 4-1 in the third set. She rallied to tie it at 4-4 before taking the match.

"I was so excited, I couldn't believe it," Arnoult, playing in her first Paralympics, said in an e-mail. "I then had the honor of sending some tennis balls up into the stands and the crowd went crazy. A couple people stopped me on the way out of the stadium asking me for my autograph."

The first set was tied 1-1 before Sevenans scored five straight. After dropping the set, Arnoult gave herself a pep talk. Arnoult, who plans on retiring after the Paralympics, told herself "this may be your last singles match played on an international level, so you might as well go out swinging."

Arnoult took a 3-0 lead in the second set and never trailed.

Arnoult, the top American player for the past two years, advances to Thursday's quarterfinals to face No. 4 Jiske Griffioen of the Netherlands.

Arnoult and partner Kaitlyn Verfuerth, seeded fourth in doubles, play Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whley of Great Britain in the doubles quarterfinals on Thursday. Arnoult and Verfuerth received a first-round bye.