Melanie Oudin stuns Ekaterina Makarova to reach the title match – AEGON Classic 2012
World number 208, Melanie Oudin, kept her dream run at the AEGON Classic tournament in Birmingham, England and stunned the eighth seeded Russian opponent, Ekaterina Makarova, in the semi-final battle to earn a place in the title match. The American qualifier took one hour and 46 minutes of play to register a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, win over the world number 54 in a convincing fashion.
Oudin made her way to the main draw of the tournament through the qualifiers and had stunned every superior-ranked opponent en route to the final. The 20-year-old American tennis prodigy stepped on the grass courts of the Edgbaston Priory Club against Makarova as an underdog opponent and no one expected such high quality display of tennis from her. She exhibited tennis far better than her rankings suggest and stunned the hot favourite Russian to reach the title round of the tournament in style.
"I've played six or seven matches in a row here now and I feel my confidence building with each one," Oudin said after her emphatic victory over the eighth seeded Russian. "I've always loved playing on grass. I think my forehand is one of my biggest weapons and since I hit it so flat it goes through the court a lot on grass. Then I can slice my backhand and hit drop shots too, so I've always thought grass suits my game really well. I feel like I'm showing Top 50 tennis again. I hope to get back up there."
Makarova was off to a sloppy start in the opening set and soon was witnessed struggling with her shot making. She broke the American serve once but two cracking break point conversions from Oudin left her stranded at 4-6. The Russian regrouped in the following set and launched an all-round onslaught upon the American youngster, breaking her serve three times to clinch the set at 6-3.
Tide turned in the final set once again and it was Oudin who rocked the show to register her upset victory. She secured 16 out of 20 first serve points and broke the Russian twice to seal the third set at 6-2, aching into the final of the tournament.
Oudin will face off the former world number one, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, in the title match of the AEGON Classic on Monday afternoon. Fifth seed Jankovic was successful against the Chinese qualifier, Jie Zheng, 6-7(2), 7-5, 6-1, in the semi-final clash.
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