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Register tennis writer Jim Fuller has the latest news on the Pilot Pen tourney and the tennis scene.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Oudin opens some eyes

Trying to attempt a commitment from defending Pilot Pen women's singles champion Caroline Wozniacki was pretty high up on the to-do list of Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director Anne Worcester. But something tells me that the performance of another talented teen has caught her eye.

Melanie Oudin, a 17-year-old from Marietta, Ga., had never won three matches in the same WTA event before this week. But after defeating former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic 6-7, 7-5, 6-2 Oudin awaits the winner of the Agnieszka Radwanska/Na Li match in the fourth round. Oudin has won three three-set matches. Not a bad effort for a kid who had never won a main draw match in three previous Grand Slam appearances and needed to win three qualifying matches just to get into the Australian Open draw.

Oudin is the first American teen to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon since Serena Williams in 2001. She has already passed Bethanie Mattek-Sands and could move by Jill Craybas to become the No. 3 ranked American woman behind Venus and Serena Williams. Oudin needed to win three qualifying matches just to get into the main draw.

Amelie Mauresmo, the last of the six players who have committed to the Pilot Pen still alive in singles at Wimbledon, is in the first set of her third-round match against Flavia Pennetta.

Christina McHale, a two-time winner of the women's open title at the Yale Summer Championships resulting into entry into the Pilot Pen qualifying draw, was knocked out in the first round of the girls' singles draw at Wimbledon. McHale, the No. 9 seed, lost to Russia's Yana Buchina 6-4, 6-3.

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