PARIS // When this year’s French Open draw was made just over a week ago, American Shelby Rogers was right near the back of the queue, just avoiding the qualifiers by scraping in on the direct entry list.
On Sunday, the 108th ranked American, playing the tournament of her life, once again ended up in floods of tears after taking her place in the last eight by dispatching 25th seeded Romanian Irina Begu 6-3, 6-4.
Although she said she was probably playing above herself, she also does not feel out of place in such rarefied company.
“I’m definitely outside of my comfort zone already, and I keep telling myself, ‘you belong here’,” Rogers, who had knocked out twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the previous round, said.
Sunday’s win made her only the ninth woman ranked outside the top 100 to reach the quarter-finals at Roland Garros since 1983.
Things are likely to get tougher still when she faces her next opponent, fourth seed Garbine Muguruza on Tuesday for a place in the last eight.
At 22, the Spaniard is a year younger than Rogers and she also holds the distinction of being the last woman to have beaten holder Serena Williams at Roland Garros.
But those statistics are unlikely to unnerve former ball girl Rogers, who just plans to keep on enjoying herself for as long as she can.
“I keep reminding myself to play one point at a time and that this is just another tennis match,” she said.
“That’s getting a little bit harder to do as the rounds get farther ... (But) I think. I have nothing to lose, I have no pressure ... Anyone that’s in the draw has an even chance, I think. So (once) you’re in, you’re in.”
Meanwhile, men’s second seed Andy Murray reached the quarter-finals for the sixth time with a 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over John Isner of the United States.
Murray, 29, a three-time semi-finalist in Paris, will face either Richard Gasquet, the last French player standing, in the last-eight.
It will be Murray’s 20th appearance in the quarter-finals of the last 21 majors after braving an Isner storm in the first set where he faced down three set points in the tie-breaker.
“It was a very important tie-break to win. I got lucky on his first set point when I guessed right on a short forehand,” said Murray.
Isner was bidding to become the first American man in the last-eight in Paris since Andre Agassi in 2003.
Ninth seed Gasquet surprised fifth seed Kei Nishikori as he triumphed with a 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win in their match.
Stan Wawrinka, the men’s defending champion, was also a victor yesterday as he got the better of Victor Troiki in four sets in their match.
The Swiss player struck 105 winners in the 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 success, and the third seed was pleased with his focus in a match in which the players stayed on court during a short rain shower during the second set.
“For me, it was a great win, a great match, a very robust match,” Wawrinka said. “I managed to stay very calm, I didn’t get excited, or irritated, even though I lost the second set. I didn’t waste any intellectual energy because I was very serene.”
All the running around Troicki did in the first two sets caught up with him midway through the third and he called on the trainer.
As the Serbian lay flat on his back to have his hip manipulated, Troicki was the only person on Philippe Chatrier Court who missed out on watching “a bored” Wawrinka trading groundstrokes with a ballboy.
“I asked the ballboy if he played tennis and I thought, ‘why don’t we go and hit a few balls’. He wasn’t afraid to be on centre court,” a smiling Wawrinka said.
“We had a little chat. He was a nice kid. It was nice for him. It was fun for the audience. I was a little bit bored waiting for him (Troicki) so it kept me busy.”
Top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza saw their hopes of holding all four grand slam women’s doubles titles at the same time come to a shattering end.
Bidding to become the first team to hold all four majors simultaneously since Serena and Venus Williams in 2010, Hingis and Mirza slumped to a shock 6-3, 6-2 loss to Czech pair Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in the third round.
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