Down a set against another much taller and much more experienced Russian opponent, Melanie Oudin had Nadia Petrova just where she wanted her.
Or so it is beginning to seem at this US Open, where the 17-year-old Oudin has become a tennis star by producing comebacks and upsets on a round-by-round basis.
“I don’t actually mean to lose the first set,” Oudin clarified on Monday.
But she clearly does have every intention of hustling and picking at her strings until she finds a way to win, and her surprising and inspiring run through the draw has taken her all the way to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
The latest big-hitting Russian to be trapped in her web was the 13th-seeded Petrova, who looked as if she might actually write a downbeat ending to Oudin’s Open fairy tale when she ripped through the first set in 31 minutes, reeling off six games in a row. But Oudin, from Marietta, Ga., stayed true to her September form by calming down, extending the rallies, developing a deeper understanding of Petrova’s serve and giving herself and her fast-growing public what they both craved by prevailing, 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3.
When the match ended with a forehand winner, Oudin’s arms flew up and her racket kept going, leaving her grip and landing near the baseline as she walked to the net. She did not look quite as wide-eyed as when she had given Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova the same demoralizing treatment at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the previous two rounds. The “Believe” written on her tennis shoes looks ever more redundant.
“Today, there are no tears, because I believed that I could do it,” she said. “It’s like now I know that I do belong here. This is what I want to do, and I can compete with these girls no matter who I’m playing. I have a chance against anyone.”
She will get no argument from Russian tennis fans, who have seen Oudin eliminate four of their finest in four rounds. First came Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Oudin’s former junior rival; then came comebacks against the fourth-seeded Dementieva, the 29th-seeded Sharapova and now Petrova, a two-time United States Open quarterfinalist.
“She’s on a roll, you know,” the 27-year-old Petrova said. “She has nothing to lose. She goes, enjoys it, crowd is behind her. She’s just having a blast out there.”
Oudin, sturdy and quick-footed, is the youngest woman to reach the Open quarterfinals since Serena Williams, who was a slightly younger 17-year-old when she went on to win the tournament in 1999.
A decade later, Williams and Oudin are the only Americans left in either singles draw. It has been quite a climb for Oudin, who was ranked outside the top 200 when she lost in the first round last year here after receiving a wild card. Now, after reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon as a qualifier, she is guaranteed of breaking into the top 50.
Among those enjoying the view from the players box Monday were her father, John, and her twin, Katherine, who rejoined Oudin’s mother, Leslie, flying back on short notice from Atlanta to watch Oudin try to extend her Open. Meanwhile, at Oudin’s tennis base in metropolitan Atlanta, the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, the courts were vacant Monday afternoon as about 75 members crowded into the restaurant and watched her match.
Mary Joe Fernandez, the United States Fed Cup captain, was impressed enough with Oudin’s game and attitude this year to take a chance on selecting her to play against Argentina.
Oudin ended up winning the second of her two singles matches as the inexperienced United States team surprisingly prevailed. “I’m not sure I expected something like this U.S. Open to happen so soon for her, but I definitely saw a fighting spirit,” Fernandez said.
“And when you have that determination, that kind of positive attitude and you put in the hard work, good things happen. She’s worked really, really hard since Fed Cup on her fitness, on getting even quicker, on constructing points. I think she’s really figured out what works well.”
What has worked well against the taller, not-necessarily-stronger set at the Open has been slicing her backhand to vary the pace and get out of trouble, keeping her ground strokes consistently deep and ripping forehands for winners or near winners when the opportunity or necessity arises. Despite the tape on her left thigh, to protect an injured iliotibial band, she has also continued to move and, above all, compete superbly.
But according to her coach Brian de Villiers, she was not at her best Monday, in part because he felt she had become distracted by two public appearances Sunday.
“With all the distractions in the last couple days, I don’t think she had quite the same mind-set at the start of the match,” he said.
De Villiers, born in Botswana and raised in Zimbabwe but now an American citizen, has been the most significant force in developing Oudin’s game, coaching her since she was 9. And he said he intended to keep her in the bubble until her quarterfinal against 19-year-old Caroline Wozniacki, the ninth seed, who kept Oudin from having the chance to play a fifth straight Russian by defeatingSvetlana Kuznetsova in three sets Monday.
“Tomorrow, we’ll just keep her away from all this and just let her go back to being normal,” de Villiers said.For Latest Updates on Trends and Styles, Click Here.
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