Oudin Out At U.S. Open

Sports Betting News - September 10th, 2009 - Written by John

It took two memorable weeks to get to know Melanie Oudin - the spunky kid from Georgia who had some silly writing on her shoes. Like how she considers everything to be "cool" and "awesome" like any typical 17-year old would. Or how she breaks up almost every sentence with "like".

Or how stopping her honest, good natured, great American story will make another tennis player apologize for ruining it.

It took all of about an hour and a half for Caroline Wozniacki to eliminate her Wednesday night, 6-2, 6-2, abruptly ending the run of the youngest player to reach the quarterfinals since 1999.

"I'm sorry that I won against Melanie today," Wozniacki said as she addressed the crowd over the speakers on ESPN. "I know that many of you wanted Melanie to win."

Maybe it was the distractions that finally got to her, but as Oudin sat in her chair in between games, down 2-1 in the second set, reality finally set in that she might finally feel what she made four other women feel. Caroline Wozniacki eventually finished off the junior and will now set her sights on Yanina Wickmayer, the 50th-ranked player in the world, in the semifinals.

"It was a lot," Oudin said on ESPN.com. "These past two weeks have been really different for me. I've gone from being just a normal, like, tennis player to almost everyone in the United States knowing who I am now."

Oudin's mother agreed.

"She's just had so much other activity going on that mentally she wasn't quite as focused as she should've been," Leslie Oudin added to ESPN. "All this comes with experience, and she'll learn how to handle this better."

Oudin wasn't able to manage the same comeback she had in earlier rounds, where she dropped the first set only to reel off the next two. But having 43 unforced errors in one match have a funny way of sucking the wind out of a tennis game and the 50th-ranked Wozniacki took full advantage.

She jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set within 10 minutes and eventually took that lead to 5-1. Then again, Oudin never really started strong in her first four matches and she still had a chance to get back in it in the second set. Both players were tied at 2-all. But she ruined her chance at two break points and never recovered. Wozniacki won four straight sets after those missed opportunities to put Oudin, and her story, to bed.

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