American teenager Melanie Oudin pulled off straightly upstart of a Russian star, as Maria Sharapova was ousted by the Georgia native in Saturday's third-round action at the U.S. Open.
Melanie Oudin sat there in shock. Then, the tears started falling.Believe it or not, 17-year-old Melanie Oudin is the toast of the town at the U.S. Open.
"I don't even know what to say right now," Melanie Oudin said, choking back tears in her postmatch interview in Arthur Ashe Stadium. "Thank you so much for cheering for me."
Maria Sharapova, who has won this tournament once, usually gets those cheers. But on this cloudless day in Queens, the fans were rooting for a new potential queen — the one who stamped the word "Believe" on her shoes, but probably didn't see this coming so soon.
"My goal was to make the top 50," Melanie Oudin said. "But if I keep playing like this, who knows? Hopefully, I can get as high as anything."
Melanie Oudin added this upset to one over No. 4 Elena Dementieva in the second round and a win over former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic this year at Wimbledon.
Her confidence is growing as quickly as her resume, and suddenly, it does seem like anything is possible.
Gritting her way through a shaky third set, the 70th-ranked player from Marietta, Ga., pulled off her second upset of the Open on Saturday, defeating a more-seasoned, more-famous, more-moneyed opponent — 29th-seeded Maria Sharapova, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
The three-time major champion Sharapova captured a U.S. Open title back in 2006.
Maria Sharapova had little trouble with Oudin in the opening set on Saturday, but the young American fought back and captured the second set on her seventh set point to surprise Sharapova and force a third and deciding stanza.
In the final set, Maria Sharapova saved six break points to pull within 2-3 and then summoned a trainer to work on her right arm. The Russian superstar Maria Sharapova sidelined for more than 10 months because of a right shoulder injury that wound up requiring surgery last year. She returned to the tour earlier this season.
In the first game following Sharapova's injury timeout, Melanie Oudin broke for a 4-3 edge. And then following several more breaks of serve on either side, Oudin found herself serving for the match at 6-5 and converted on her first match point with a forehand winner into a wide-open court.
The Marietta native Oudin broke into tears as she moved into the second week here for the first time in her blossoming career. The upstart American also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon this summer by shocking former top- ranked star Jelena Jankovic.
Maria Sharapova imploded for 21 double faults and had her once-powerful serve broken eight times. Oudin was also broken on eight occasions in the 2-hour, 58-minute battle.
Melanie Oudin's fourth-round opponent will be another Russian, 13th-seeded Nadia Petrova, who was an easy 6-4, 6-1 victor against 21st-seeded Chinese Zheng Jie on Day 6 at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center.
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