Teen tennis phenom Melanie Oudin served up another upset victory yesterday, surging back from a first-set pounding to win in three sets over Nadia Pe trova and advancing to the US Open quarterfinals.
Oudin, who won the hearts of New Yorkers with her stunning upsets over fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva and former US Open champion Maria Sharapova, pumped her fist in the air as she com pleted the victory, 1-6, 7-6, 6-3. “It was awesome,” said Cheryl McLean, a so cial-work director in town from Winchester, Mass., for the Open. “Oudin is darling.”
The unseeded Oudin was in trouble early, dropping the first set to the 13th-seeded Pe trova and coming within a point of falling behind 5-3 in the second.
But the 17-year-old from Marietta, Ga., rallied to win the second set in a tie break before handily finishing off Petrova in the third. “This is going to do a lot for American tennis,” she breathlessly told the jubilant crowd in the Flushing stadium.
The teenager will face eighth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki tomorrow.