Say it ain't so, Shelby! Former US Open quarterfinalist Shelby Rogers has announced that the 2024 tournament will be her final professional event. The 31-year-old American made the announcement on her social media channels on Friday.
After six months on the sidelines with knee surgery last year, the latest in a litany of layoffs due to injury her professional tennis career, the Charleston, S.C. native told fans in a heartfelt letter that her body can no longer handle the rigors that come with being a professional athlete. Rogers returned to the tour in January at the Australian Open, but has posted just a 5-9 record in 2024.
"My dream was to be a professional tennis player, and I can forever tell that little girl we did it," Rogers wrote in a letter posted to her accounts. "I always said that if my heart loves it and my body is healthy I would play this sport forever. But my body is now telling me its time.
Rogers, a former world No. 30, will play No. 6 seed and fellow American Jessica Pegula in the US Open first round.
"It sucks having to play her," Pegula said during her pre-US Open press conference. "She kind of told me before, and I didn't know if she was going to announce it or not.
"It's crazy to me that, like, obviously I know she had a lot of injuries, but to see people, like, my age retiring, her, Danielle [Collins], it's sad. Shelby and I go way back. We were battling at Georgia, Southern sectional 16-and-unders, and now we're playing in the US Open. Obviously, she's had amazing results here too and has been a top player. But it's pretty crazy and I think cool in the same way to say that we were playing at all these crazy sectional tournaments.
"Being able to end your career at the US Open and play each other, it's pretty amazing when you look at it that way. ...At least it comes full circle in some way or another. I hope she's looking forward to what's coming after."
The US Open has been the sight of many of Rogers' career accomplishments since her 2010 main-draw debut. In 2017, she played what was then the longest women's singles match in the Open Era at the US Open (a 3-hour, 33-minute epic against Daria Saville that was passed by two 3-hour, 40-minute affairs in 2021), and three years later, she had her deepest-ever run to the quarterfinals.
At the 2020 US Open, Rogers famously saved four match points in a Round of 16 matches against two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova before losing to eventual champion Naomi Osaka.
But it was in 2021 where Rogers might've made her biggest New York mark. Entering her third-round match against then-world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty with five losses in five matches against the Aussie, Rogers rallied from 5-2 down in the final set to stun the top-ranked Aussie,6-2 1-6 7-6(5), in the third round. It was her first career win over a reigning world No. 1, and unlike her 2020 run, which was played during the COVID-19 pandemic, a jam-packed Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd was her doubles partner for the thrilling night-session comeback.
“You guys are awesome, I didn’t want to leave, I just said ‘Make balls, try to stay in this match. It can’t get any worse, you’ve lost to her every time, so try something different,'" Rogers said.
"I'm like partially deaf after that," she joked later in press. "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 maybe.'"
Despite never winning a WTA singles title in her career, Rogers reached three finals, and scored wins over seven Top 10 opponents too. She also reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros in 2016, and helped the U.S. win a Billie Jean King Cup title in 2017.
"My heart will always love this sport, and I hope I can pass along some inspiration to the next generation of players to dream big and keep growing this beautiful game of tennis," she concluded.
