PARIS -- When Shelby Rogers finished last season at No. 146, she set a rather modest goal for 2016: boosting her ranking enough to gain direct entry into Grand Slam tournaments so she wouldn't need to go through qualifying rounds.
She managed to accomplish that for the French Open -- but barely. At No. 108, the 23-year-old American was the last player admitted to the field at the time of the rankings cutoff last month.
By beating a seeded player at Roland Garros for the third time in a week, Rogers reached the first major quarterfinal of her growing career with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 25 Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania on Sunday. In the last 30 years, only five women ranked lower than Rogers have made it to the quarterfinals at the French Open.
"I keep reminding myself to play one point at a time and that this is just another tennis match. But that's getting a little bit harder to do as the rounds get farther," said the 23-year-old Rogers, who is from South Carolina.
"I have nothing to lose. I have no pressure. It's just been a great experience here, and I want to keep enjoying it and keep pushing myself," Rogers said. "I'm definitely outside of my comfort zone already, and I keep telling myself: You belong here. You belong here."
Certainly does.
She pushed Begu around the court, producing a 9-3 edge in forehand winners while using the same deep, flat groundstrokes that dictated points against her previous opponents, including No. 10 Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, and No. 17 Karolina Pliskova.
"I was way behind the baseline," Begu said, "and she was just controlling the game."
When it ended, Rogers dropped her racket and covered her face with both hands. Soon enough, she was crying, so much so that she was handed a tissue by 2013 Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli, who conducted the on-court interview afterward.
Not that the emotional display was anything new for Rogers.
"One-hundred percent, tears all the time. Sad, happy, hungry, reading a book, watching a movie. They flow very easily," she said through a wide smile at her news conference. "Those little puppy commercials: 'Adopt a puppy.' No, change the channel. Can't do it."
Sports on 05/30/2016