Giant-killer Melanie Oudin returns to US Open
Melanie Oudin’s giant-killing run to the quarter-finals at the 2009 US Open had tongues wagging, and propelled the teenager firmly into the spotlight, perhaps, as it has transpired, at little before her time.
The then 17-year-old Oudin began her tournament at Flushing Meadows with a straight-sets win over fellow teen Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova before claiming a more impressive Russian scalp in fourth-ranked Elena Dementieva in the second round, the American clawing back from a set behind to claim a 5-7 6-4 6-3 victory.
Come-from-behind victories against former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova and a fourth Russian in Nadia Petrova followed for Oudin, who finally met her match in ninth seed and eventual runner-up Caroline Wozniacki in the quarters.
But while Wozniacki’s star has continued to rise to the point that in the absence of injured world No. 1 Serena Williams she’ll enter the 2010 US Open as the top seed, Oudin has in the year since been unable to reproduce the form that took her to the final eight of a Grand Slam.
A maiden WTA Tour title has remained out of reach for the world No. 44, with her best result of 2010 coming in Paris [Indoors] during February, where Oudin reached the semi-finals before Dementieva turned the tables to claim victory in that match on her way to her second title of the year.
That result, and quarter-final finishes in Memphis and Ponte Vedra Beach helped propel Oudin to a career-high ranking of world No. 31, but it’s been a disappointing few months for the 5ft 6in right-hander since then as she’s failed to progress beyond the second round in any subsequent tournament.
Indeed, Oudin will arrive at the US Open this year on a four-match losing streak, beginning in the second round in San Diego (lost to Sam Stosur) and ending in New Haven yesterday, where lucky loser Dominika Cibulkova claimed a three-set victory over the youngster.
Living up to last year’s US Open performance was always going to be a tough task for the diminutive player, who showed at Flushing Meadows in 2009 she’s got the ability to make up for what she concedes to her opponents in height with solid movement around the court and a wide variety of shots in her bag of tricks, but at three subsequent Grand Slams has recorded two first round losses (Australian Open and Roland Garros) and a second round defeat at Wimbledon.
It would be easy to forget after last year’s impressive run at the US Open that, at 18, Oudin remains a work in progress but there is little doubt that is indeed the case.
Oudin will return to the scene of her most memorable victories next week as one of the players to watch, rather than the almost anonymous youngster who apparently found herself scrambling for accommodation in New York last year after only booking a room for the first week of the US Open.
But while last year’s US Open saw Oudin’s profile skyrocket as she became America’s newest tennis star, the intervening year has shown that it would be perhaps be unrealistic to expect her to shine quite as brightly in 2010.
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