DEL.ICIO.USOudin’s Wimbledon win gets Marietta family packing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Each time Melanie Oudin won one of her first three matches at Wimbledon, her family cheered from their Marietta home, more than 4,000 miles away.
Wait. She won? Again? AGAIN?
AP
Marietta’s Melanie Oudin on Saturday upset Serbian star Jelena Jankovic, a former No. 1, in the third round at Wimbledon.
• Photos: Oudin's Wimbledon win
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And now that the 17-year-old is headed to the Round of 16, her parents are scrambling to make the trip to London.
Melanie has played in big-time tournaments. But this time, she surprised even those who know her best.
Ranked No. 124, Oudin on Saturday defeated Serbian star Jelena Jankovic, a former No. 1, in the third round.
Oudin came to Wimbledon without a guaranteed spot. She had to win three qualifying matches to get in.
“It’s surreal,” mom Leslie Oudin said Saturday afternoon. “She’s thought about this goal forever. We just didn’t think it was coming now.”
The home-schooled teen has played in two other Grand Slams. But she’s had trouble getting past the pesky first round.
“It was huge when she won that first match,” said Leslie Oudin, just hours before her 9 p.m. flight Saturday. “I have to go over there now. I need to be there.”
Melanie’s father John will make the trip Sunday.
Still in shock, both parents plan to be in the stands for Melanie’s next match on Monday against Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, seeded No. 11 in the tournament.
Melanie was confident going into Saturday’s match.
“I can do it,” she told her mom beforehand.
Melanie’s twin sister Katherine and 11-year-old sister Christina won’t be making the trip. It is, after all, summer vacation and they have plans of their own. Both of the girls also play tennis.
Christina says Melanie is her favorite tennis player in the world right now.
“She’s been practicing so, so hard, and it’s finally paying off,” she said Saturday afternoon.
Melanie decided at a young age to focus on her game, and she never looked back. She asked her parents if she could skip traditional school to spend more time on the court.
In 2004, Melanie won the girls 14 singles title at the Georgia State Junior Closed Qualifying Championships tennis tournament in Macon. Melanie and Katherine, five months shy of their 14th birthdays, were runners-up in the doubles competition.
Katherine, who attends The Walker School in Marietta, can hold her own on the court. But it’s Melanie who truly lives for the game.
In June 2006, Melanie was the youngest player in Wimbledon’s junior qualifying, and she won a round. She qualified for the Australian Open juniors in January of that year.
Then in the fall of 2007, she won 27 straight matches on her way to a No. 4 ranking.
And last year, Melanie won her first pro singles title in a USTA Pro Circuit event in Lexington, Ky. Her first WTA Tour win was in March at Indian Wells, Calif.
“She can play with these girls,” her coach Brian deVilliers said earlier this week. He is the director at Racquet Club of the South in Norcross.
Young sister Christina, a student at Eastside Christian School in Marietta, is excited for Melanie, but she’d rather be making the trip, too.
“I don’t have my passport,” she said. “But I’m definitely going next year because I’m not missing this again.”
