The Day After: Oudin a Celebrity in Times Square after US Open upset of Maria Sharapova

Melanie Oudin Passed a celebrity hour at Times Square on Sunday, a day after upsetting Maria Sharapova.Melanie Oudin stepped out of a United Sates Open van in Times Square on Sunday morning and got a glimpse of the future: She is a celebrity.

Melanie Oudin Passed a celebrity hour at Times Square on Sunday, a day after upsetting Maria Sharapova.Melanie Oudin stepped out of a United Sates Open van in Times Square on Sunday morning and got a glimpse of the future: She is a celebrity.

Melanie Oudin looked small and uncertain as she faced a growing crowd in the middle of Times Square Sunday morning. Less than 24 hours after the biggest win of her tennis career, the 17-year-old from Marietta, Ga., was dealing with a new reality.

"It's that tennis player," one teenage girl yelled to another as she whipped out her cell phone to take a picture. "The little one. The one that beat Sharapova."

Tourists and passers-by began to gather on 43rd St. Photographers jostled to get a shot of the new teenaged sensation who had just knocked out a former U.S. Open champion. Tourists and photographers jostled and yelled as everyone seemed to call her name from every direction.

The 5-foot-6 Melanie Oudin smiled nervously until the photographers began to push and shove each other. She was whisked away to a waiting car.

"It wasn't really scary. It was just really weird," Oudin said. "They all seemed to know me. It was just weird."


Melanie Oudin was presented with a cake that had her mantra Believe written on it.
Photographers (alerted by women’s tennis tour officials) crowded around to snap her picture with a tennis racket. Bystanders smiled and pointed cameras and cellphones. “She beat Sharapova,” said a pedestrian to his companions.A caterer had delivered a cake that said “NYC Loves Oudin Believe!” (Believe is her mantra). She stood beside the confection for more picture taking.It all happened pretty much wordlessly — until she was asked the inevitable question: “How do you feel?”

“Excited,” she said, smiling and stepping back into the van before it pulled away to return to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Serena Williams shows no sign of fall as Williams standing at US Open

Venus and Serena Williams be going on in tennis longer than any of the others who make it populate the sport when they broke in 10 years ago. A decade is an eternity in tennis, in professional sports really. In the span of five hours, on the same court at Arthur Ashe Stadium in fourth-round matches, the hunt for another women's U.S. Open championship took completely different turns for the Williams sisters.

Under a bright, sunny late morning sky Serena Williams breezed through an easy two-set match, beating Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-0, to advance to the quarterfinals. Later under a cloudy gray sky with a wicked wind whipping around the stadium, Venus Williams, gimpy with tendinitis in her heavily wrapped left knee, lost to Kim Clijsters, 6-0, 0-6, 6-4. That derailed a possible semifinals showdown between the Williams sisters, who were in the same half of the women's bracket.

Under a bright, sunny late morning sky Serena Williams breezed through an easy two-set match, beating Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-0, to advance to the quarterfinals. Later under a cloudy gray sky with a wicked wind whipping around the stadium, Venus Williams, gimpy with tendinitis in her heavily wrapped left knee, lost to Kim Clijsters, 6-0, 0-6, 6-4. That derailed a possible semifinals showdown between the Williams sisters, who were in the same half of the women's bracket.

After Venus lost to Clijsters, she joined Serena in a doubles match against Sonana Cristea and Caroline Wozniacki. At least that part of the Williams Sister Act at the Open was still intact.

But Clijsters brought the curtain down hard on the singles portion of the Williams Sisters Show in rather demoralizing fashion for Venus Williams. Clijsters blistered Venus in the first set and Venus Williams returned the favor in the second set. The third set was more indicative of pitched battle that fans had come to see. Williams missed several easy shots, but she seemed to be fighting fate much of the afternoon. Clijsters, who is returning from a two-year hiatus after having a child, became the first wild card entry to reach the women's quarterfinals.

As much as Venus Williams was fighting fate (and a debilitating injury), Serena Williams is operating on a tennis version of Manifest Destiny. Through her first three matches Serena Williams has crushed all the opponents in her path on the way to the quarterfinals and is looking at expanding her grand slam championships to three this year. Serena Williams has already conquered the Australian Open and Wimbledon. And with the No. 1 (Dinara Safina), No. 3 (her sister Venus) and No. 4 (Elena Dementieva) and No. 5 (Jelena Jankovic) seeds out, Serena, the No. 2 seed, becomes the heavy favorite to cruise to a fourth U.S. Open title.

The only one standing in her way could be Clijisters, who despite her absence has miraculously returned to grand slam championship form.

Five-set triumph required for heaven-sent for Taylor Dent at U.S. Open Its needed heaven sent for Taylor Dent at U.S. Open.All of the fatigue, all o

Its needed heaven sent for Taylor Dent at U.S. Open.All of the fatigue, all of the agony, they never seemed so far in the past as when Dent was running a ring around the Grandstand court at the National Tennis Center Friday night, slapping five with the fans who just wanted a piece of one of the most improbable - perhaps only - victory laps the U.S. Open's No. 3 court has ever seen. Taylor Dent - who only a couple of years ago was told Taylor Dent might never walk again, let alone take such a triumphant jog - went 4hours and 13 minutes on the Grandstand to outlast Ivan Navarro of Spain, 6-4, 5-7, 6-7 (1), 7-5, 7-6 (9), in a second-round matchup of serve-and-volleyers that turned into the most captivating match of the tournament.

When it was over, Taylor Dent simply couldn't contain his joy, grabbing the chair umpire's microphone and telling the crowd, "I just want to say you guys are unbelievable, I love you. Let's go!"

They are going together into the third round of the Open, where Dent will meet the No. 2 ranked player in the world, Andy Murray, with all of the fans and none of the odds in his corner.

"My voice is hoarse, I'm so excited," Taylor Dent said on the court afterward as the crowd chanted "USA! USA!" "It wasn't the prettiest match, but my grit got me through today."

Today, Friday, for three years, his grit has seen him through, if not to the top of the tennis world. The Newport Beach, Calif., product once was considered one of the great American hopes in men's tennis, charted on a course alongside Andy Roddick and learning under the tutelage of Pete Sampras. He reached as high as the No. 21 ranking before beginning to suffer back pain so excruciating that hanging a picture in his house would knock him down for hours.

Three surgeries on his back cost him most of the last three years of his career and left him bedridden all day for up to eight months at a time. He was told to forget tennis, and that the broken vertebra that was threatening the nerves at the base of his back might land him in a wheelchair.

Taylor Dent said "I came to grips with the fact that I wasn't going to be able to play professional tennis anymore," he said.

Murray ready well to face Dent in US Open

World number two Andy Murray is confident to utilize every opportunity to win the last Grand Slam of 2009 as he prepares to faceAndy Murray in their US Open third-round match on Sunday.

The Scotsman Andy Murray -- who is trying to become the first British man to win a Grand Slam title since Fred Perry in 1936 -- will play for a spot in the last 16 against the 196th-ranked US wild card .
"You want to make sure you don't have any regrets as it's a good three or four months before the next Grand Slam," said Andy Murray -- who was last year's beaten finalist.
Andy Murray enjoys playing at Flushing Meadows but the 22-year-old is well aware that the 25,000 capacity crowd will be firmly behind Dent -- who is playing in his first US Open since 2005.
A serious back injury forced the 28-year-old out of the world rankings, but he underwent complex spinal and has slowly begun to claw his way back up the world rankings.
Dent used his booming serve to outlast Spain's Ivan Navarro 6-4, 5-7, 6-7 (1/7), 7-5, 7-6 (11/9) and delighted the crowd with a wild celebration that culminated in him grabbing the umpire's microphone to thank his fans.
"Andy Murray y is tough. It's going to be rough. There's no way around it," said Dent.
"My execution is not where I want it to be but I'm going to go out there and fight as hard as I possibly can. Even if it's 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, I'm going to give him everything I've got," he added.

US Open 2009: Serena Williams enters into quarter-finals

Defending champion Serena Williams has made sure to enter into the quarter-finals of the US Open with a 6-2, 6-0 beating Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.

No worries: Serena Williams only dropped two games in her win over Daniela Hantuchova

The second seed will play either Vera Zvonareva of Russia or Flavia Pennetta of Italy for a place in the semi-finals.

It was a routine win for the tournament favourite in stark contrast to the trials and tribulations of several of her main contenders, especially the Russian brigade of top seed Dinara Safina, Maria Sharapova and Elene Dementieva who all crashed out the following day.

The 27-year-old Williams broke serve in the sixth and eighth games of the first set against the Slovak, who was playing in her 35th Grand Slam event and with just one semi-final showing, at the 2008 Australian Open, to show for it.

The second set was one-way traffic as the title-holder made it 10 games in a row to march into the semi-finals in just 64 minutes.

"Daniela is such a good player and I knew I had to be serious as she always gives me trouble," Wil