Facing greater expectations, Melanie Oudin wins first match

Melanie Oudin got the home-court advantage Monday and took full advantage of it.

The Georgia teenager who made a surprising and engaging run to the U.S. Open quarterfinals last year opened on Arthur Ashe Stadium with a 6-3, 6-0 win over qualifier Olga Savchuk. As a 17-year-old, Oudin beat Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova on Ashe before losing to Caroline Wozniacki.

"It's a real honor to get to start the U.S. Open off on Ashe, first match," Oudin said. "I thought it was pretty cool. I didn't expect that . . . It felt so good to be out there again and hearing the crowd. I was definitely nervous. My stomach felt a little bit funny. But I loosened up and I think I got a lot better in the second set."

This has been Oudin's first full season at the top level of the game. Last year, her best tournaments happened to come at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Those results established a level of expectation that she's had to cope with this year, going from unknown one season to marquee player the next. Now that she's known, the crowds aren't always so forgiving of her mistakes or unabashedly on her side.

"It's just really different from last year when everyone was so pumped for me," Oudin said. "At [this year's] tournaments, everyone is like 'Come on, Melanie.' They tell me, like, 'Fire up, Melanie.' I'm like, I'm trying as hard as I can, you know. It's not gonna happen all the time. Like, you never play your best tennis all the time."

Brian de Villiers, who has coached Oudin since she was 9, said: "I think she has done an amazing job handling all these things. The main thing I'm trying to get across for her is to play for yourself."

Last year, Oudin had the word "Believe" stitched on her shoes for the Open. This year, she has a new word, "Courage."

"I wanted to do something different this year - I mean it's not like I'm sick of 'Believe' or anything, and people tell me that all the time - but I wanted something different," Oudin said. "I think 'Courage' was really, really good for this year, especially because of how well I did last year. I think you need to have courage in order to believe in yourself. Like in order to go for my shots and things like that and do as well as last year or better, I need to have courage."