When Melanie Oudin’s Cinderella run in the U.S. Open ended in the quarterfinals last night, after she hit a backhand long, she shook Caroline Wozniacki’s hand at the net, walked to her sideline seat and started crying.
Oudin grabbed her bags to leave the court quickly after losing to the 19-year-old Danish standout 6-2, 6-2 when ESPN’s Pam Shriver intercepted her. They spoke privately for a few moments, and Shriver convinced the Georgia peach to do an on-court interview for the crowd.
Oudin composed herself long enough to tell the crowd, “I want to thank you so much for coming and cheering for me. Hopefully I will come back next year and do even better.”
And just like that, Oudin was walking off the court, to a standing ovation. The 17-year-old Southern belle of the Flushing ball left the Open and left it less interesting.
“I had a great run in this tournament,” Oudin said later. “But to me I’m a perfectionist and losing today was a disappointment. Losing isn’t good enough for me. But the whole experience I had will take me a long way.”
Ranked 70th, the Marietta, Ga., native entered the Open unknown and unseeded before pulling off stunners over Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova, all in three sets. But there was no magic left from the 5-foot-5 sparkplug. She committed 43 unforced errors.
Wozniacki played a great match. Wozniacki, who faces Belgian Yanina Wickmayer in tomorrow’s semifinals, has a heavier forehand than Oudin’s and for now is less mistake-prone.
“She is a strong player,” Oudin said. “She doesn’t give you anything for free. She makes you hit one thousand balls. . . . I was a little too impatient.”
Clearly, all the hoopla — media and fan attention – had gotten to her, moreso than the strain in her left thigh.
“She wasn’t moving quite as well,” her mother Leslie Oudin said. “Maybe mentally so much activity going on, she wasn’t quite as focused as he should’ve been. All this comes with experience and she’ll earn to handle it better in the future.”
Ranked ninth, Wozniacki played with such composure in her first quarterfinal appearance with the whole stadium rooting against her.
“Hopefully I’ve won your hearts and you will be cheering me in the next match,” said Wozniacki.
Oudin’s entourage wore black and yellow T-shirts that read “Believe” – the saying on Oudin’s sneakers. In a bad omen, her 9-year-old sister misspelled “Believe” on national TV.
Even after a ragged first set in which she fell behind 0-3, fans still believed because she had rallied so many times before. At 1-1 in the second set, she got up 15-40 but flubbed a service return wide, hit a forehand long and lost the game when Wozniacki hit a backhand that struck the net tape, plopped up in the air and died just over the net.
Yes, even luck wasn’t on her side.
“The whole experience has been a whirlwind. I’ll remember all of it,” Oudin said.