Q and A with Melanie Oudin

Cobb County's Melanie Oudin will join Serena Williams, John Isner and Sam Querrey at the SunTrust Rock-n-Racquets exhibition Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens.

The rising young star in women's tennis spoke recently with the AJC about her life since her quarterfinal run at the U.S. Open.

Q. What's your schedule like these days?

A. I've been home for a couple weeks now, so it's been good. I took a little bit of time off, and I've started to train back.

Q. What have you done with your down time?

A. I've been able to go hang out with my friends and go to movies and the mall and shopping and all of that. It's been nice not having a full schedule.

Q. Can you get around town without being stopped?

A. Some. It's gotten better. It's definitely died down since the Open. But people still recognize me almost everywhere I go.

Q. Has it been hard coming off the high of the U.S. Open?

A. It's been kind of hard. From the Open it was such a high, and it took so much out of me. Going from playing at Arthur Ashe to playing in Tokyo in qualifying -- it's so different. It's been overwhelming how everyone knows who I am wherever I go now. But I'm getting used to it. It was overwhelming when everything happened, but I'm glad it did because now I'll know exactly how to handle it in the future.

Q. Do you have a strategy for how do you handle it?

A. Not really. I like wear a hat sometimes. I was at the movies the other night, and this man just started talking to me, asking ‘When is my next tournament,' and I was like, ‘I don't even know how you know who I am.' It's pretty funny. A lot of the times I wear a hat or a hoodie and people still recognize me. It's funny.

Q. Are you trying not to let it affect you?

A. Yes, but it's not that hard because I just try not to worry about it. It's not that big of a deal. It's cool that most people are just congratulating me. It's neat to know that I have a lot of new fans. But it's not going to change me at all.

Q. Do you let yourself think about what this could be a springboard to? You could be the next this or that in tennis?

A. Yeah, it makes me think about it. But I have no idea yet. I don't really know what I can bring. Just from the U.S. Open, I brought the whole ‘believe' thing, and I think that inspired a lot of people, which was really cool.

Q. Have you had somebody famous recognize you that freaked you out?

A. Queen Latifah knew who I was right away when I met her. That was pretty cool. That was in California when I was doing [the] Ellen DeGeneres [show].

Q. Is there something you've got your sights set on doing with some of the money you've made?

A. Not really. I'm going to save it and hopefully be able to buy a house one day. I already have a car and basically everything I need. I don't need to spend it on anything big.

Q. Do you still have your Toyota 4Runner?

A. Yes I do. I'm not going to change cars just because I can buy a new one.

Q. Do your twin sister and your younger sister keep you grounded?

A. Not really, because they love the attention. I'm like ‘you have no idea.' But it's all right. I'm cool with it.

Q. You and your boyfriend, Austin, are still dating? How are you making that work?

A. It's fine. It's actually not that hard because we both have the same kind of goals. Yeah, I'm gone a lot. And so is he. That's the hard part. But it's doing well.

Q. So you went to Tokyo and China, how was that?

A. I did not do very well, so it's OK. I didn't enjoy China at all. Tokyo was OK. I got sick there, so it wasn't very good. The culture is so different. It just took me a while to get used to it. The food was different. I think that's why I felt sick. I couldn't get the nutrients I normally get. And the air was bad.

Q. So Italy for the Federation Cup was more fun?

A. Yes, but we really didn't get to see anything because we were so busy practicing. We got to go out one night, and it was really fun. Being with the whole team is always a blast because you never get to play as a team. We did everything together. Our thing was we played charades at night, which was really fun.

Q. How's your [tennis] game these days?

A. I feel good. I'm working on different things, technique stuff. I'm going to keep working hard and make sure I'm ready to go to Australia in January.

Q. What will it take to keep building on what you've done?

A. Just to keep working hard. I need to get quicker and stronger and just keep learning and getting experience in a lot of matches and playing more of these top-20 girls.

Q. Who are your closest friends on the tour?

A. I'm actually pretty new to it, so I don't really know. A lot of people keep to themselves. It's kind of hard. It's kind of confusing, the way some of the girls on the tour are.

Q. Having you gotten to know Serena?