Melanie Oudin continues her assault on the tennis world.Add Maria Sharapova to the list of top women knocked out of the grand slam tournaments by giant-killer, Melanie Oudin. The 17-year-old Georgian continues to serve notice at the U.S. Open Championships that she is for real after her 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 3rd round win.
Moments after knocking out Sharapova, Oudin told the packed house of well-wishers, “I don’t even know what to say right now, thank you so much for cheering for me.”
That kind of humility and innocence is winning her fans worldwide.
With her left thigh tightly wrapped, and her underdog status firmly in place, Oudin strode into Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium and picked up right where she left off when she beat Elena Dementieva in the second round.
At first, the blistering pace from Sharapova seemed to be too much. Oudin fell in the first set by a score of 6-3. But If Sharapova sensed that victory was near, Oudin had other ideas. Sharapova was being pressured in every service game – and finally, the wheels started to come off.
The double faults began piling up and before the crowd knew what hit them, Oudin claimed the second set.
With the match even, Oudin quickly went up another break in the 3rd set when Sharapova made a strategic call to the trainer. Surely that would cool off this little upstart. And for one game, this possible display of games-womenship paid dividends. Sharapova broke back leveling the match at 3 games a piece in the third.
But the fiery Melanie Oudin is quickly establishing a record of mental toughness. She’s more than scrappy, she’s a true pitbull. She dug deep and broke Maria right back, punctuating the win with a fist pump and a “C’MON!!”
Each woman continued to trade breaks until Melanie the Lionhearted slammed the door on Sharapova in the third and took her rightful place in 4th round.
Look out world, this kid is here to stay.
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