World Tennis Magazine

Unique Tennis Perspectives

match point

Wozniacki Ends Melanie’s Dream

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NEW YORK – Four straight unforced errors ended one dream and continued another.

Although the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd was loudly pulling for her, Melanie Oudin’s dream run at the US Open ended Wednesday night when she was overwhelmed 6-2 6-2 by ninth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki.

“She had a great run, beaten so many great players,” said Wozniacki, the first Danish player to reach the semifinals in a Grand Slam tournament Wozniacki made sure Oudin’s “great run” didn’t continue, instead controlling the points with her consistent baseline game, moving her 17-year-old opponent all around the court and finding answers to every problem the Marietta, Georgia, right-hander posed. In the final game, Oudin won the first point, then netted a forehand, attempted a backhand drop shot that didn’t even make it to the net, sailed a forehand long and was wide with a backhand on match point.

With a spot in the championship match awaiting the winner, Wozniacki will next take on Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, who won her quarterfinal earlier in the day, 7-5 6-4 over Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine.

Oudin became the darling of America’s premier tennis tournament when she unexpectedly mowed down a series of Russians in her march to the quarterfinals. Although she had upset Jelena Jankovic en route to the fourth round at Wimbledon, she was a pleasant surprise here on the hard courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The youngster started off by beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, then followed that up with victories over fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva, 29th-seeded Maria Sharapova and 13th-seeded Nadia Petrova. With each successive upset, Oudin’s dream grew more vivid along with the expectations from growing legend of fans.

Only two years older than Oudin, Wozniacki never was in trouble against the American, repeatedly hitting with heavy topspin, making the ball jump up high to Oudin’s ground strokes. It was Wozniacki who was dictating the pace and the points.

“She’s such a strong player. She doesn’t give you anything for free,” Oudin said of Wozniacki. “She plays incredible defense. Makes me hit a thousand balls and really is a really great player.”

Unlike Oudin, Wozniacki wasn’t an unknown entity when she began the year’s final Grand Slam tournament. She was seeded ninth after entering the US Open having won the 56 matches, the most of any player on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour this year. And she has captured three titles this year, including the Pilot Pen in New Haven, Connecticut, the day before the US Open began its two-week run.

Wozniacki said she wasn’t bothered by the crowd’s overwhelming support of Oudin.

“It’s always tough to play against a home favorite,” Wozniacki said. “I had this experience in Australia this year where I played (Australian) Jelena Dokic.

“I knew how I was going to feel to be out there and the crowd, but I just used the energy and tried to convert it into some good tennis.”

Oudin’s never-say-die attitude, her big forehand and her constant pressure caused her Russian opponents to eventually collapse. Not so with Wozniacki.

“She beat some great players,” Wozniacki said of Oudin. “I knew that it was going to be tough and I knew that she was going to fight to the last point. I just thought about one point at a time, one ball at a time and tried not to think too much about the score.
“I’m a fighter, so I don’t give up. I fought to the last point.”

Like Wozniacki, Wickmayer is playing in a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time. Her lone WTA Tour singles title came on clay in Estoril, Portugal.

Wickmayer started the US Open by upsetting 16th-seeded Virginie Razzano. Since then she has not had to face another seeded player.

“Before this my best result was second round (in a Grand Slam tournament),” Wickmayer said. “So of course when you get to the third, fourth round, you start surprising yourself. But actually I’ve been staying pretty calm. I’ve worked really hard for this.”
Top-seeded Roger Federer advanced one step closer to a sixth consecutive US Open men’s singles title when he ended the night by dodging an inspired Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-0 6-3 6-7 (6) 7-6 (6).

It appeared as if Federer would sail through the quarterfinal against the man he beat in the French Open final. But Soderling stepped up his game in the third set, and after Federer swept out to a 4-0 lead in the tiebreak, Soderling roared back to win it 8-6.
The two battled evenly through the fourth set, Federer using his huge serve and Soderling his big ground strokes.

Then, suddenly, Soderling ripped a forehand crosscourt that sailed wide, the only mini-break in the tiebreak, but one that gave Federer the match at 8-6.

“It was so close towards the end, a great relief to come through,” Federer said. “The beginning was a bit too easy. But he showed what a great player he is.”

The Swiss superstar is in his record 22nd straight major semifinal – Ivan Lendl had the old mark at 10 – and is seeking to become the first man to win three consecutive majors in one season since Rod Laver completed the Grand Slam in 1969.

Federer also is bidding to become the first man since Bill Tilden in 1925 to win six consecutive US titles. He is the only man to win five or more successive titles at two Grand Slam tournaments, having won Wimbledon from 2003 through 2007.

In the semifinals, Federer will face fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic, a 7-6 (2) 1-6 7-5 6-2 winner over Fernando Verdasco.

DRAMATIC – AND UNUSUAL – FINISHES AT THE US OPEN

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The US Open always has matches of high drama and tension and the date September 6 has had its fair share of them. From this excerpt from September 6 from the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com), some of the great matches are detailed as follows…

1943 – An unusual ending to a major final occurs in the men’s singles final at the U.S. Championships as Joe Hunt, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, defeats Jack Kramer of the U.S. Coast Guard 6-3, 6-8, 10-8, 6-0 at Forest Hills. As Hunt serves at match point in the fourth set, Kramer’s forehand return of serve lands long as Hunt buckles to the court with cramps. Writes Allison Danzig in the New York Times, “As Kramer knocked the last ball out of the court, Hunt, turned at the baseline to run to the net to greet his opponent, fell to the ground in pain, seized with a cramp in his left leg, which had been bothering him through the last set. Kramer walked over to his fallen rival and, with Hunt holding on to his leg, they shook hands on the turf as camera men rushed to “snap” the unusual scene.” Says Kramer of the match in The Bud Collins History of Tennis, “I hit a forehand long on match point. If I’d kept that ball in court I think I would have been the champ by default.” Hunt does not defend his title in 1944, due to his military obligations, and is killed in a plane crash on a training mission in 1945 off Daytona Beach, Fla.

1975 – Four years after her debut at the U.S. Open as a 16-year-old, Chris Evert wins her first Open title, defeating Evonne Goolagong 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in the women’s singles final. “All through the match, I never thought I’d win,” says Evert. “I was pretty down the whole way.” The final marks the first year the tournament is played on clay and Evert goes on to dominate the Open on the surface, not losing a singles match during the event’s three-year-run on clay from 1975 to 1977. After Jimmy Connors beats Bjorn Borg 7-5, 7-5, 7-5 in the first men’s semifinals, Manuel Orantes performs one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history, saving five match points in defeating Guillermo Vilas 4-6, 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 in 3 hours, 44 minutes after trailing two sets to love and 0-5 in the fourth set.

1977 – Top-seed Bjorn Borg dramatically quits his round of 16 match with Dick Stockton at the U.S. Open – a sore right shoulder not allowing him to continue as Stockton advances into the quarterfinals by a 3-6, 6-4, 1-0, ret. score-line. Says Stockton, “I’ll take the victory any way I can get it, but I would liked to have seen the match continue. I think I would have won it anyway.“ Also in the round of 16, Manuel Orantes ends the debut U.S. Open of John McEnroe, defeating the 18-year-old New Yorker 6-2, 6-3.

1986 – Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf complete one of the greatest U.S. Open women’s semifinal matches ever as Navratilova comes back from three match points down to claim a 1-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (10-8) semifinal victory over the 17-year-old West German. Navratilova, who displays fist-shaking and finger-waving emotion, leads 4-1 in the first set before the match is delayed a day due to rain and completes the inspired victory in a total match-playing time of 2 hours, 19 minutes. Writes Roy Johnson of the New York Times, “It took more than 24 hours to complete, with emotions that ranged from exultation to disappointment. In between, two players tested and stretched one another and provided a sellout crowd at the National Tennis Center with the most dramatic match of the tournament.”

1998 – Patty Schnyder defeats Steffi Graf 6-3, 6-4 in the round of 16 in what ultimately becomes Graf’s final match at the U.S. Open. Graf announces her retirement 11 months later on August 13, 1999.

2001 – At 12:14 am, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi complete one of the greatest tennis matches of all time as Sampras finishes off a 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5) victory in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. Neither player has his serve broken in the 3-hour, 32-minute match. As the clock strikes midnight, the fourth set-tie break is played and both players receive a standing ovation from the 23,033 fans in attendance.

2003 – Andy Roddick saves a match point and advances into the final of the U.S. Open – his first major final – defeating David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-1, 6-3. Roddick, who fires 38 aces in the match, saves his match point at 5-6 in the third set tie-breaker with a service winner. Says Roddick, “The turning point was clearly the third set tie-break. At that point I was nearly down and out. I had no pressure at that point so just went for it.”

1991 – Seventeen-year-old Monica Seles and 15-year-old Jennifer Capriati slug it out in the dramatic women’s semifinal at the U.S. Open with Seles hanging on to advance into the U.S. Open final for the first time with a nail-biting 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (4) victory. Capriati serves for the match on two occasions – at 5-4 and 6-5 in the final set, but is unable to convert. Says Capriati, “I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.” Says Seles, “We both didn’t want to give up unitl the last ball…There was a lot of pressure on me because she was running every ball down.” In the first women’s semifinal, 34-year-old Martina Navratilova knocks off top-ranked Steffi Graf 7-6 (2), 6-7 (6), 6-4.

2003 – Twenty-two hours after walking off the court after a dramatic semifinal win over Jennifer Capriati, Justine Henin-Hardenne becomes the first Belgian to win a U.S. title, defeating countrywoman Kim Clijsters 7-5, 6-1 in all-Belgian women’s singles final. In the wee-hours of the morning the night before, Henin-Hardenne finally defeats Jennifer Capriati 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) in the women’s semifinal in a match that concludes at 12:27 a.m. The Capriati-Henin-Hardenne match lasts 3 hours, 3 minutes with Capriati serving for the match in both in the second and third sets. She is two points from winning the match 11 times, but is unable to break through. Curiously, both Capriati and Henin-Hardenne win 127 points in the match.

2000- At 1:22 am, Todd Martin completes an incredible two-sets-to-love comeback to defeat former world No. 1 Carlos Moya of Spain 6-7 (3), 6-7 (7), 6-1, 7-6 (6), 6-2 in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. Martin saves a match point at 6-5 in the fourth-set tie-break to win the 4-hour, 17-minute struggle. Following the match, Martin laps center court and exchanges high-fives with the die-hard fans that stay to the bitter end of the match.