Up and coming American teen Melanie Oudin might be as surprised as anybody that she is now the third-ranked American in the WTA rankings.

Oudin was in New Haven to help with a clinic at Edgewood Park after a press conference which announced the city of New Haven received a grant to refurbish the courts at Edgewood and East Shore. Before her appearance, I had a chance to sit down with the bubbly 17-year-old who opened a few eyes when she took out former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic en route to a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Oudin had to win three qualifying matches just to get into the main draw at Wimbledon and become the youngest American to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon since Jennifer Capriati in 1993.

"It was crazy," Oudin said. "It definitely wasn’t anything I expected. Going into the first round of qualifying at Wimbledon and you main goal is to qualify. If you can get through the qualifying, it is a huge thing at the grand slams. After that, it was a whole different tournament starting Wimbledon. I loved every minute of it. After I got to the fourth round, I went from kind of being not a nobody but being used to people not knowing me to everybody wanting to know me and wanting to talk to me and see what I had to say, see what kind of person I was. It was an unreal experience."

Oudin's ranking soared to a career-high No. 70, putting her behind only Serena and Venus Williams among American women.

"I think it is crazy. I looked up to Serena and Venus forever, they were the first people I watched on TV playing Wimbledon," Oudin said. "I told my mom I wanted to play at Wimbledon one day like (the Williams sisters) did. Being ranked right behind them is unbelievable. I can’t even believe it. This is hard to comprehend that in the rankings, I am the third-best American right now."

The tournament announced that Oudin will receive a wild card into qualifying at next month's Pilot Pen. Oudin has already used up her allotment of main-draw wild cards so she will spend the summer attempting to qualify for the U.S. Open Series events including the Pilot Pen. However, with a ranking of No. 71, she will not need a wild card into the Pilot Pen qualifying.

With just 80 points to defend between now and the U.S. Open, Oudin figures to keep soaring up the rankings assuming she can navigate her way through qualifying draws at events in Los Angeles, Stanford, Cincinnati and New Haven as well as Toronto if she choses to play there. Of course, after a hectic schedule leading up to the French Open contributed to her loss in the opening round of qualifying, don't be surprised if Oudin limits her summer schedule a bit. If she advances deep into the main draws, she won't have a choice since she won't be able to play a main-draw match in one event while expected to enter qualifying in another.

The deadline for direct acceptance into the men's and women's singles draws at the Pilot Pen was about 1 1/2 hours ago. The player fields are expected to be announced on Wednesday. Currently, Caroline Wozniacki (who is No. 9 in the WTA rankings) is the only top 10 player confirmed to be entered. Tournament director Anne Worcester said she doesn't expect any additional top 10 players to be on the lists she receives tomorrow but with four wild cards on both the men's and women's side, she expects to add some star power to the field late in the game which tends to be the rule more than the exception.

There are a few chances in the women's event. First, the days of having the Tier IV event in Forest Hills weaken the qualifying field ended when Forest Hills was not included on the 2009 calendar. Next, the women's field went from 28 to 32 players as the WTA did away with bye in the smaller events. Finally, two of the four women's wild cards are reserved for top 10 players. Unlike in past years when the WTA used drawing power as a guideline for ranking players, the top 10 players are now determined by the final 2008 rankings. Among the names to watch among the top 10 are Elena Dementieva, who played in New Haven every year from 2000-07 but told Worcester she would not be entering early; Maria Sharapova, who is still working her way back into form after a serious shoulder injury and Agnieszka Radwanska.

New Jersey teen Christina McHale, who won the women's open title at the 2007 and 2008 Yale Summer Championships and played in the 2008 Pilot Pen qualifying draw, is among the players Worcester is targeting for one of three remaining women's qualifying wild cards. McHale won a play-in tournament to earn a spot in the main draw of the Australian Open singles event and won the junior girls' doubles title at the Australian Open.