Melanie Oudin is headed back to the US Open with added weight on her shoulders and a warning: Don’t expect a replay of last year’s surprising run to the quarter-finals, no matter what her sneakers say.
A 17-year-old ranked 70th last year, Oudin now is 44th on the WTA Tour. She will be the second-highest ranked US woman in the field behind No. 4 Venus Williams when the season’s final Grand Slam tournament opens in New York on Monday.
The rise has meant higher-ranked opponents and more pressure for the teenager from Marietta, Georgia, who has only won one singles match in a major since her success last year helped produce three new sponsorship deals estimated to be worth more than US$1 million.
PHOTO: AFP
“Almost every person in the United States expects me to win every single match I play, so, I mean, that’s kind of a little bit of pressure,” Oudin said at a news conference this month in Cincinnati. “Last year I was like the new kid in town, and you really don’t have any pressure when that happens.”
Oudin spoke after losing on Aug. 10 to Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open. She lost again in the first round at the Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale tournament in New Haven, Connecticut, on Aug. 23 as her season record dropped to 17-19.
Quite a change from last year’s Open, where Oudin knocked out seeded Russians Elena Dementieva, Nadia Petrova and 2006 champion Maria Sharapova and became the youngest US woman to reach the tournament’s quarter-finals since Serena Williams in 1999. Her run was ended by eventual runner-up Caroline Wozniacki.
“I saw my draw before the tournament, and my coach looked at me and goes, ‘To win the US Open, you have to beat like six Russians and a Williams sister,’” Oudin said. “It was like a joke. Playing Dementieva and then Sharapova, people I looked up to for so long, and being able to beat them was amazing, because I had no pressure on me, and I just went for it.”
Serena Williams, ranked No. 1 by the WTA, said last week that she was skipping the US Open following surgery on her right foot. Venus Williams is ranked fourth, and the only other US women in the top 100 are No. 74 Vania King and No. 83 Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Oudin said the emergence of another young American such as 18-year-old Christina McHale, the world No. 113, would help relieve the pressure.
“They can take some of the night matches from me,” Oudin said.
Mary Joe Fernandez, a former pro player and Oudin’s coach on the US Fed Cup team, said players often have trouble after an initial breakthrough.
“She can have another run, but it’s going to be harder, the second year is always tougher after players learn your game and learn how you compete,” Fernandez said in an interview.
Oudin said that, while her higher ranking meant she no longer had to play in qualifying tournaments, it also meant that “now I’m playing top 50 all the time.”
There are also more demands from outside tennis, “extra stuff that I didn’t have last year.”
Returning to the National Tennis Center may mean that just increases, Oudin said.
“I’m hoping it won’t be that bad, but I have a feeling that it’s going to be,” she said. “Because of last year, I think people are going to hope or expect that I can do it again. The thing for me is this year I’m just going to try to go into it like I did last year, and that’s how I did so well.”
SIBLING RIVALRY: Marc Marquez was locked in a duel with his little brother, falling behind at one point before recovering for his first season-opening victory since 2014 Six-time world champion Marc Marquez yesterday won the MotoGP season-opening Thailand Grand Prix to complete a dominant debut weekend at his new Ducati Lenovo Team, having also romped to Saturday’s sprint. The Spanish great took the 26-lap grand prix by 1.732 seconds for his 63rd MotoGP victory from younger brother Alex Marquez, who is still seeking a first checkered flag, with Francesco Bagnaia third to complete an all-Ducati podium. It completed a perfect weekend for Marc Marquez, who took pole position, the sprint victory and the grand prix win for a maximum 37 points to open the 22-leg 2025 campaign. He led from
AC Milan’s slender hopes of reaching next season’s UEFA Champions League took another hit on Thursday with a 2-1 defeat at Bologna which left them eight points from Serie A’s top four. Sergio Conceicao’s team sit eighth, some way behind fourth-placed Juventus after losing an entertaining contest at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, a match which was rescheduled from October last year due to torrential rain and flooding. Swathes of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, much of which is fertile agricultural land, had been left under water following a massive autumn downpour. Dan Ndoye prodded home the decisive goal in the 82nd minute
VALUABLE POINT: Relegation-threatened Valencia snatched a thrilling 3-3 draw at CA Osasuna thanks to a remarkable backheel volley by Umar Sadiq Barcelona on Sunday secured a comfortable 4-0 win over Real Sociedad to move back top of La Liga. Aritz Elustondo’s early red card gave Hansi Flick’s side a comfortable afternoon, with Gerard Martin, Marc Casado, Ronald Araujo and Robert Lewandowski on the score sheet. Atletico Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao on Saturday to temporarily knock the Catalans from their perch, while Real Madrid, third, lost at Real Betis Balompie. Flick was able to rotate his side a little ahead of the UEFA Champions League round-of-16 visit to face SL Benfica tomorrow and still move one point above Atletico. “There were a lot of things that
Former Australian motorcycle gang member-turned-golfer Ryan Peake, who served a lengthy jail term for assault, yesterday produced a “life-changing” maiden win to qualify for The Open Championship. Peake held his nerve for a one-stroke victory at the New Zealand Open, earning him a berth at the major in Portrush, Northern Ireland, in July, pending clearance to travel as a convicted criminal. The 31-year-old from Perth celebrated animatedly and was showered with champagne by friends on the 18th green of the Millbrook Resort course near Queenstown after a redemption story rarely seen in the refined sport of golf. Peake held back tears as he