by Ashley Brownstein
With the clay season complete and another French Open in the books we get that rare time to reflect on the two weeks in Paris before we start up again with a new major. We now know the obvious headlines, Serena Williams falling short again of slam twenty-two and Novak Djokovic completing his career grand slam. But for American tennis it was especially exciting as one of our own, whose name wasn’t Williams, made it to the quarterfinals. Shelby Rogers, 23, was the American that cemented herself as the one making a lasting impression. Rogers entered the French Open ranked 108 in the world but took out three seeded players before falling to Garbine Muguruza who became the eventual champion.
Now we turn our attention to grass as we prepare for the road to Wimbledon. Shelby is looking to expand on her success from Paris while in Mallorca, Spain as she tunes up on grass. With the change of scenery (not just sunny skies rather than consistent rain) comes the switch to a new surface. But that doesn’t seem to faze Shelby; rather she finds that grass is better suited to her game. With a big serve and powerful groundstrokes she feels she can carry the success from clay to grass.
“I served especially well in Paris so that’s definitely a positive,” she said. “It gives me pretty high confidence to take from the French that I can carry over here.”
Confidence she has but what about pressure?
“No I don’t really feel any right now,” she said. “Especially being in Europe it’s not as big of a deal. Maybe if I was in the states I’d feel it more but I’m really enjoying being here. You see different players and feel a different dynamic with the grass but I’m just trying to push myself and also be realistic. My goal at the beginning of the year was to make it into the slams this summer, which I’ve already achieved so I’m proud of that. I want to finish the year definitely in the top seventy-five so again realistic but there are always things I can improve on.”
Shelby seems to possess the type of realistic stamina that will keep her in the game for some time. And while she “of course” wants to reach number one in the world one day she does find this time for women’s tennis very exciting. Who wouldn’t? The past three slam winners have all been first time champions. Add to that the support coming from the locker room itself. As Shelby describes “it’s really an amazing thing to be a part of American tennis. We’re all cordial, all friends and give each other friendly competition. We genuinely want each other to do well, I’m so happy to be a part of that.”
Of course it is too soon to tell and no one really knows what will happen in the future. But if I had to guess Shelby Rogers is going to do everything she can to make sure that she is a part of the future of American tennis. Even though we were gifted with one “Cinderella story” perhaps we can get a second at Wimbledon. Shelby even said “on any given day it could be your time in women’s tennis” so why not hers?
