Melanie Oudin finds herself in a new and happy place
Melanie Oudin was a happy girl Tuesday morning.
She was announcing her newest marketing deal, with Virgin Mobile USA cellphones, and what 18-year-old doesn’t like a new cellphone?
And not to put any pressure on Oudin, but Virgin Mobile will donate $1 million to homeless youth organizations should Oudin win the U.S. Open in next September.
That would be a pretty gigantic accomplishment for Oudin, who is content for now to be the highest-ranked American woman entered in the BNP Paribas Open, which begins with women’s main draw play Wednesday and men’s on Thursday.
Oudin, ranked No. 41 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, will meet 27-year-old Italian veteran Roberta Vinci, who is No. 57 in the world, in the first round and a win would put Oudin against 21st-seeded Daniela Hantuchova in the second round.
The 2010 season is filled with new directions for Oudin and hopefully her new cell contract will give her GPS. A year ago Oudin was a little-known teenager who fought her way through qualifying rounds before she even began playing in main draws.
Then she captivated U.S. Open fans by upsetting Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova in succession to reach the quarterfinals before losing to eventual finalist Caroline Wozniacki. Oudin’s slogan, tattooed on her shoes, was “Believe,” and now she carries something new.
Expectations.
Oudin had a slow start to the year. At the Australian Open, she held four match points in the first round against Alla Kudryavtseva but won none of them and lost the match.
She most recently made it to the semifinals of a WTA event in France, where she fought well in a three-set semifinal loss to top-seeded Dementieva, but in Memphis last week she lost in the quarterfinals to a qualifier, Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden, who was ranked No. 102 in the world.
“I wasn’t 100% ready for the start of the year,” Oudin said Tuesday. “I had a pretty long off-season. I was doing different things because of what happened at the Open, with sponsors and stuff.
“But for me I know having good results last year wasn’t a fluke. It is very different when you know you have to defend a lot of [computer] points but ultimately I don’t worry about that stuff.”
twitter.com/mepucin
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