The U.S. Open Cinderella story—that is Melanie Oudin—followed a similar pattern on Monday.
Oudin lost the first set to No. 13 seed Nadia Petrova of Russia but then re-discovered the tremendous fighting spirit that has made her the darling of this tournament. She roared back to defeat Petrova 1–6, 7–6, 6–3.
Petrova started very positively. She used her powerful serve, which reached a top speed of 119 mph, to take charge of the first set. But Oudin found her range in the second set and got the better of Petrova.
Seventeen-year-old Oudin from Marietta, Ga. stands a mere 5’6” and has to use her speed around the court and guile to win points. She can’t rely on one big weapon. She didn’t hit any aces and her fastest serve reached only 99 mph.
But that being said, it is now abundantly clear that her heart and spirit is as big as any forehand or serve in the women’s game.
She sealed the victory with a big cross-court forehand. The match lasted two hours and 27 minutes.
“I started believing I could do it, and I did it!” Oudin exclaimed in the on-court interview with CBS after the match.
“It was so tough. She [Petrova] was all over me. I just kept fighting.
“I’m so happy to be in my first grand slam quarterfinal ever!”
Oudin was coming off incredible upset victories over former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova on Saturday and fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva last Thursday. In those two matches, Oudin dropped the first set and came back to win the next two sets.
Petrova is actually the fourth Russian in row beaten by Oudin. Oudin easily beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round.
Oudin will face Denmark’s Caroline Wozniaki in the quarterfinals—perhaps unfortunately for Oudin, she won’t get to face another highly-ranked Russian as Wozniaki defeated No. 6 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in a very close encounter 2–6, 7–6, 7–6.
This year’s U.S. Open has turned into a very atypical women’s grand slam tournament. Only one seeded player is left in the top half of the draw (No. 9 Wozniaki) after a slew of upsets in the early rounds. One has to feel that Oudin has as good a chance as anybody of making it to the final.
Tough Tournament for U.S. Men
For the first time in the history of the U.S. Open, dating back to 1881, no American man reached the quarterfinals.
Six-foot-nine-inch American John Isner was the last American standing—and standing tall—at the start of the day in the men’s draw. He was beaten by No. 10 seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain 4–6, 6–4, 6–4, 6–4 on Armstrong Stadium.
Isner didn’t seem to have the jump in his step that he did after his memorable victory over Andy Roddick on Saturday. Both Isner and Verdasco were coming off tough five-set victories but Verdasco looked much fresher.
Isner failed to take control of the net, winning only 52 percent of the points at net. He only came to net 27 times out of 215 points played.
He chose to slug it out from the baseline against Verdasco, which played into the Spaniard’s hands.
In other action, Roger Federer advanced comfortably into the quarterfinals with a 7–5, 6–2, 6–2 win over Spain’s Tommy Robredo. Robredo served extremely well in the first set but his level of play dropped after that and Federer, as he usually does, picked up his game.
In Monday’s first match on Armstrong, Sweden’s Robin Soderling knocked out Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko after the Russian retired after going two sets to one down.
Federer will face Soderling in the quarterfinals in a rematch of the French Open final, which was handily won by the Swiss.
