Is Melanie Oudin the next Tracy Austin?
Photo credit: AP | Melanie Oudin of the United States returns to Nadia Petrova of Russia at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, Monday, Sept. 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
Melanie Oudin
Photos: Del Potro wins 2009 U.S. Open
"I don't want to sound cocky," Tracy Austin said, standing between courts of battling juniors Tuesday afternoon at the National Tennis Center, "but Melanie reminds me of me."
Tracy Austin was Melanie Oudin once. She was a blossoming junior player who suddenly shot to stardom by winning the 1979 U.S. Open at age 16, the youngest player to do so. Like Oudin, she couldn't overpower other players, and today, at age 45, she's still slim, even slight.
Austin's armament didn't include a flashing forehand or smashing serve. Oudin doesn't have those weapons, either.
But Austin had the biggest weapon of all, a huge heart. And in watching Oudin at Wimbledon and then every stroke of her upset against Maria Sharapova here, Austin sees that same big heart, that fighting spirit, that mental toughness.
"I loved her mental toughness," Austin said. "You just can't say enough about that quality. It's never getting upset, it's playing a point at a time, it's never giving up on a point, it's forgetting you lost a set. I just love her mental toughness."
Austin knows firsthand, and sees in Oudin's results, the withering effect that mental toughness has on an opponent. They may be a head taller than Oudin, possess more powerful strokes, but the more the ball comes back at them, the longer the rally goes, the longer the game and the set, the more Oudin's heart takes over.
"You see how fragile her opponents become," Austin said. "Because she also has great speed and is going to run down a lot of balls, it puts pressure on them to hit better and better shots, and it's then that they start to make mistakes. She has great speed and anticipation, and that makes up for a lot of other things."
Oudin ran down four straight Russian players to reach tonight's quarterfinal match against Caroline Wozniacki. Oudin, the 17-year-old from Marietta, Ga., had an easy first-round match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, then won in three sets against No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova, the 2006 Open champion, and Nadia Petrova, the No. 13 seed who started off strong in winning the first set.
"She has exposed the fragility of a lot of these players," Austin said. "You look at how [Ana] Ivanovic, Sharapova, and of course Dinara Safina have been struggling, have trouble with their confidence. Sharapova is a little different, coming back from injury, but Melanie shows that if you can hang in there, you can win against anybody.
"Against her, they have all the pressure. They are the top 10 players who have never played against her before. They have a lot to lose; she doesn't have anything to lose."
Standing not too far away from Austin between Courts 6 and 7 was Nick Bollettieri, one of the game's most accomplished coaches and the owner of one of the game's most successful academies in Bradenton, Fla. Sharapova, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles and many others have flourished under Bollettieri's eye.
Bollettieri, ever upbeat, gushed about Oudin's accomplishment. "She is an absolute breath of fresh air," Bollettieri said. "She should be copied by every American junior. She goes out there, competes hard and has a great time doing it. She brings hope to American tennis because she shows you don't have to be a giant to be successful. She doesn't complain about anything, doesn't get upset; she just plays every point as hard as she can and loves every minute of it.
"Now it remains to be seen when she comes around the second time, when all these women play her again. She has a decent slice backhand and good serve placement, but we'll see what happens. But it's just wonderful to see what she's doing."
Austin met Oudin at Wimbledon this summer, where Oudin beat Jelena Jankovic in the third round.
"She is a great bubbly kid, a real joy to be around, but she's also focused and professional,'' Austin said. "She was worried about getting her ranking up so she wouldn't have to qualify . She's not going to have to worry about that now."
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