oudinIf you considered only Melanie Oudin’s age (17), size (she’s 5-foot-6), and lack of experience, she brought almost no obvious ammunition to her second-round United States Open match against No. 4 Elena Dementieva on Thursday. Her game has drawn sneers from other players who say she has no major weapons.
What Oudin did bring to Arthur Ashe Stadium, however, was an unquantifiable toughness and pulled off the biggest upset of the Open so far, topping Dementieva, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, in front of an electrified crowd rooting for an American success story. Oudin accomplished this despite an injured left thigh that required medical attention in the third set and was so painful it brought her to tears at one point.
“When I play with no fear, that’s when I play my best,” Oudin said. “I just try to play my game and not worry about anything else.”
It is no coincidence that Oudin’s hero is Justine Henin, the similarly tiny player from Belgium who was the world’s No. 1 player before she retired despite all the same knocks against her game and stature. “She proved you don’t have to be six-foot-something to win,” Oudin said. “She figures out a way to take down these players who could overpower her with her variety and her shots.”
Oudin, ranked No. 70, seemed unfazed by her surroundings and the strength of her opponent. She covered the court masterfully and dictated play, despite the strain in her quadriceps muscle. She took advantage of openings Dementieva gave her with a faltering serve. She pumped her fists and seemed to grow stronger mentally as the match progressed and the crowd matched her intensity with its fervor.
“I feel she had a very good attitude today in the court,” Dementieva said graciously after the match. “She was really using all the positive emotions from the crowd. She was really into the game and, you know, really playing at her best today.”
It was an even more unlikely upset because of all the highly ranked players chasing their first major, Oudin drew the one who seems to be getting her act together. Dementieva has reached the semifinals of four of the past five Grand Slams, including last year’s United States Open. And she got what she felt was a breakthrough victory at the Olympics last summer. In the two Slams this year, she ran into Serena Williams on Williams’s way to winning the title at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
She warmed up for this tournament by winning the tournament in Toronto, beating Maria Sharapova in the final after toppling Serena Williams in the semifinal. But that final also showcased the one major weakness in Dementieva’s game: her serve. She and Sharapova, another notoriously bad server, combined for 17 double-faults. Heading into the Open, Dementieva was averaging 5.4 double faults a match.
But Dementieva said she did not believe any of that, good or bad, carried over to the Open. “It’s all new here,” she said before the match. “It’s a new challenge.”
Dementieva, who had never played Oudin, seemed to take control of the match early, breaking Oudin’s serve immediately and seeming to establish her game. But her serve started to wobble and Oudin collected two breaks of serve in the middle of the set to pull even at 5-5. From there, though, Dementieva steadied herself and closed out the last two games.
But Oudin did not falter, quickly gaining an upper hand in the second set and pouncing on every opportunity Dementieva offered her. Dementieva double-faulted to give Oudin a break point and although Oudin did not covert that one, she got another and crushed a forehand winner to take a 3-1 lead in the set. She broke Dementieva again in the final game of the set to push herself into a dramatic third with the Ashe Stadium crowd roaring its approval for the up-and-coming American star.
Oudin quickly took a 2-0 lead in the third, but then dumped a forehand into the net to get broken in the next game. That’s when Oudin, who has played her first two matches here with tape around her left thigh, called for the trainers, who adjusted the tape and added more.
In the next game, Oudin faltered on her leg after one point and her hand flew to her face as she wiped away tears. Still, she broke Dementieva’s serve in that game with Dementieva losing the grip on her game and spraying errors into the net and long.
Dementieva’s inability to hold serve — and Oudin’s mental toughness — was her undoing. Oudin closed out the match win a service winner and threw her arms to the sky.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Oudin said. “The whole thing was just amazing.”
It was the biggest win of Oudin’s young career, which already includes an attention-grabbing victory over No. 5 Jelena Jankovic in the third round of Wimbledon, 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-2. but even after that victory, Jankovic had sniffed at Oudin’s talent.
“She can play if you let her play,” Jankovic said. “But she cannot hurt you with anything. She doesn’t have any weapons, you know, from what I have seen.”
Oudin, though, is clearly not intimidated by the world’s top players. She advanced to this match with an easy first-round victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, 6-1, 6-2, which left her plenty of energy to battle Dementieva and was clearly the better player in this match. Oudin had 30 winners to Dementieva’s 22.
In contrast to Jankovic, Dementieva had nothing but kind words for Oudin’s game.
“I think she moves really well,” Dementieva said. “The footwork is really great. She was really fighting for every point, playing everything back. She’s very patient on the court. She knows what is her strength. She’s just waiting for the moment to attack the ball.”
Oudin’s match drew so much interest that it shoved Dinara Safina, the No. 1 seed, over to Armstrong Stadium.
It was a different court and a different opponent on a different day, but for Safina, the battle in her second round United States Open match against Kristina Barrois of Germany Thursday afternoon was the same as always. That battle happened less on the Armstrong Stadium court and more inside Safina’s own mind.
Safina, the world’s No. 1 player, grimaced and agonized and double-faulted on key points, but pulled herself together in time to win, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3, over Barrois. It was only one game shorter than Safina’s similarly agonizing first-round victory and it held all the same displays of Safina’s vulnerabilities. She seems to carry the No. 1 ranking — earned despite never winning a Grand Slam tournament — like a weight on her shoulders.
But again, she persevered not only over Barrois but over herself. Her body language was somewhat improved over her first-round escape against Olivia Rogowska of Australia. The yelling and grimacing remained but Safina did avoid constantly looking at her coach, the notoriously dour Zeljko Krajan, which only seemed to send her spirits plummeting even more.
On Thursday, Safina managed to keep her focus on the court, where she had enough problems to deal with, most notably with her serve.
After the struggle against Rogowska, who would have beaten Safina had she not committed an astounding 65 unforced errors, Safina vowed to move forward. But she quickly found herself stuck in the same rut. Safina double-faulted on the first point of the match, failed to close out the first set despite several opportunities and then when she found herself down, 5-6, in the tiebreaker, double-faulted again to lose the set.
It was an exact replay of how she lost the first set to Rogowska. Her serves on that double-fault against Barrois went a feeble 75 miles an hour, followed by a second serve at 74, a clear indication her nerves were getting the best of her.
But again, Safina found some rhythm in the second set and won it easily. Then she fell into another hole, dropping the first two games when she got a gift back from Barrois, who double faulted on break point to give Safina the opening she needed.
Still, Safina being Safina, there was drama ahead. Leading, 4-3, and seemingly looking calmer, Safina fell to 0-40 on her serve. That’s when Barrois helped her again with a flurry of errors, a bounce over the net cord for Safina and a final triumph after three deuces.
Safina closed it out and pumped her fist, living to battle herself another day.
