New York, Sep 5: Shelby Rogers lingered on the court and panned her phone around at the fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium for a snapshot souvenir of the scene after she beat Ash Barty for the first time.
Not just at the U.S. Open. Ever. Rogers was winless in five meetings – four this year – against the No. 1 player, forcing the last American left in the women’s draw to mix up her methodology.
Urged on by a raucous crowd, Rogers smacked moon balls, stayed patient – and waited as a rattled Barty hit a slew of unforced errors that led to another early exit at Flushing Meadows for the reigning Wimbledon champion.
Rogers rallied from down 5-2 in the third set to upset Barty 6-2, 1-6, 7-5 (5) on Saturday night for the biggest win of the 28-year-old’s career.
“I just tried to get the crowd into it. I said, `You know what, if I’m going to go down, I’m going to give a last dying effort,’” she said.
Barty had not dropped a set in the tournament but was sloppy from the start. She made 17 unforced errors in the first set and then three more when she held a 5-2 lead in the third that let Rogers back in.
“I played a pretty awful first set in the sense where I was erratic,” Barty said.
A day after defending champion Naomi Osaka and two of the top five men, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev were beaten, Barty went down to the 43rd-ranked Rogers.
Rogers next faces unseeded 18-year-old Emma Raducanu, who used a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Sara Sorribes Tormo to advance.
Meanwhile, top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia continued his pursuit of the Grand Slam as he rallied to beat Kei Nishikori of Japan to reach the fourth round at the US Open here.
Djokovic recovered from losing the first set as he struck 45 winners to move past the 31-year-old 6-7(4) 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 in three hours and 32 minutes. (AP)
