Melanie Oudin Goes Down and Tennis is Back to Federer, Nadal, and Williams

For a short time this last week an improbable run was made by young 17 year-old Melanie Oudin (pronounced “OO-DAN”) at the Women’s US Open. Overcoming heavily favored opponents Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva, Oudin only showed her age when celebrating her advancement, exuberantly saying “this is my first my first Grand Slam Quarterfinal ever!” She is the youngest to make the US Open Quarterfinals since Serena Williams did it in 1999. She captured the heart of America with her excitement, energy, broad smile, and youthful altruism, but it was not to last.

The miracle run for the unranked American ended yesterday with a 2 set loss to Denmark’s top female tennis player, Caroline Wozniacki. Although Oudin had come from behind in every match after losing the first set, she was not able to rally late in the 2nd yesterday to pull of yet another incredible upset. As one of America’s new bright tennis stars, we’ll be sure to see more of her in the future. Because of her accomplishment, she’s now being compared to Serena, not in playing styles, size, abilities, or practically anything for that matter, but achieving something that only Serena Williams achieved in the last decade is a pretty good start. That Williams girl has done alright… I guess.

So now that the bright, fascinating underdog story is gone, what has tennis come to now? Now that no American made it to the Men’s Quarterfinals for the first time in almost a half century, the US has taken a bit of a backseat, even though we have a guy who can serve the ball faster than anyone EVER at about 150 mph in Andy Roddick. So to the average American sports fans there are three tennis players that exist. But it depends on who you’re asking.

“Real” Sportsfan: 1) Roger Federer; 2) Rafael Nadal; 3) Venus Williams… or is her name Serena?
Female Sportsfan: 1) Andy Roddick; 2) Nadal Federer; 3) … Andy Roddick’s biceps?
Male Sportsfan: 1) Anna Kournikova: 2) Maria Sharapova; 3) and the girl who grunts a lot.
Teenage Sportsfan: 1) … 2) … 3) Does Tom Brady play tennis?
7 Year-Old Sportsfan: 1) Mario Mario; 2) Luigi Mario; 3) Yoshi

Tennis’ main headline may be back to the same boring old Nadal vs. Federer story again, but the King of Clay is right on the Best Ever’s heels. Nadal gains ground on Federer every tournament, and it won’t be too long before we’ve crowned a new King of Tennis. But apparently, some fans already have.