Melanie Oudin has her opponents literally talking to themselves on the court. What happened to them? They were up a set, seemingly in control and suddenly they were being escorted off the grounds. It’s as if they were having a bad daydream, "What, didn't I win?"
If I were coaching her 19-year-old opponent, 9th seeded Caroline Wozniacki, I would tell her to play the entire quarterfinal match as if she were down a set and a break.
She'll have to if she wants to advance to her first grand slam semifinal, because the 17-year-old Oudin has "Braveheart Syndrome." She’d launch herself over a game of checkers to beat you. Oudin says of her opponents ‘they know that I’m not going away, they’ll have to beat me.’ She means it, too.
The edge goes to Oudin here. Throw out the rankings and look at the way the young American has won her matches. She’s willing to grind or go for broke, whatever it takes to win. Her confidence is sky-high and she will have the raucous support of an entire nation behind her.
The other quarterfinal match pits the 50th ranked Yanina Wickmayer against the 52nd ranked Kateryna Bondarenko. This is what happens when 8 of the top 10 seeds get knocked out on the women’s side too early.
On the men’s side, the Andys are long gone, but there is still a field full of challengers left for the world’s number one, Roger Federer. Fed takes on Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals, the Giant Swede he conquered at this year’s French Open to claim his career Grand Slam.
Soderling has been playing big tennis all week long, but this is Federer. He hasn’t lost a match in New York since the Dutch settled the colony back in 1609. I doubt Soderling will be able to take a set unless Roger gets very bored.
However, there is one guy on the top half of the draw who’s actually managed to beat Federer a few times. Novak Djokovic from Serbia boasts four wins in 12 meetings against Federer. Djokovic meets Fernando Verdasco in his quarterfinal match.
Verdasco is a tough and capable opponent, but I don’t believe he has what it takes to win three sets off of Djokovic. The Serb should push through in three to four sets.
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