Everybody keeps asking Melanie Oudin why she did so well in the U.S. Open, as if the whole thing was an accident. The reason is that this girl has a game. She's uses a low backhand slice to draw the big players like Sharapova forward, where they have to bend very low to hit. The result is usually a nice short return she can attack (the big Russian players in particular hate it when the ball doesn't rise up into their strike zone). Oudin is extremely shrewd about building points to where she can use the slice - very few players have the kind of knack she does for gradually gaining control of a point. The icing on the cake is that she can usually hit a winner if she gets the ball just a few feet inside the baseline. Usually, that is - her forehand just wasn't working against Wozniacki so she couldn't close the points out. Also, Wozniacki wasn't bothered as much by her slice as Petrova and the others.
Oudin has footspeed that rivals Venus Williams, is alot stronger than she looks, and has one of the best second serves in the women's game. If she learns to get some free points off her first serve and develops some net game she should win a major within three years. Here's the post-tournament interview with her:
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