Oudin struggling with expectations

Melanie Oudin has been working on lowering expectations of herself all season long. And given her lack of positive results over the past four months, she has done a darn good job of convincing fans that her inspiring run to the 2009 U.S. Open quarterfinals won't be repeated when the tournament kicks off Aug. 30.

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The 18-year-old from Georgia has the potential to reach a Grand Slam final eight again, but the terrific fight and composure she displayed last summer hasn't been there this season, replaced instead by a lack of belief and little desire to be considered a player who needs to be feared.

There have been few moments this year when Oudin has tried to convince anyone that she can better her U.S. Open performance of last year, when she shocked three notable Russians in a row — Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova — before falling to eventual runner-up Caroline Wozniacki, thrusting herself into the spotlight of American tennis along the way.

She won't go so far to say the result was a one-off, but she believes there are tons of folks who think she’s already an established elite player. And she can't stomach that opinion.

"When I got to New York last year, no one knew me and only a few people in Atlanta did, and now a lot of people know me,” she said. “And in these tournaments in the States, people expect me to win all the time. I'm like, 'Guys, I'm not going to just because of the U.S. Open.'"

Oudin did show flashes of her potential during the winter and early spring, reaching the semis of the Paris Indoors and the quarters in Charleston — two second-tier events that typically draw strong fields — but her results at the majors have been poor. She lost in the first round at the Australian and French Opens and made only the second round at Wimbledon. Most of the reason is her lack of maturity and her inability to toughen up in the face of expectations.

Every teenager who has an excellent Grand Slam run has had to deal with the resulting expectations to do it again. The great ones more than meet the expectation, while the not-so-great ones wilt. At this point, Oudin is acting more like the now-retired Nicole Vaidisova (who reached two Grand Slam semis and retired at 21) than she is Sharapova, who won Wimbledon at 17 and was able to follow that up with a dash to No. 1 and two more Grand Slam crowns.

“Everyone made such a big deal out of it,” Oudin said in frustration.

Oudin hasn't won consecutive matches since April and has just a 3-11 match record since the beginning of May. This summer on U.S. hard courts, she has been taken apart by Victoria Azarenka, Samantha Stosur, Elena Vesnina and Bethanie Mattek-Sands — a good group, but no better than the elite group of Russians she toppled at last year's U.S. Open. She also lost in the first round in New Haven this week to Dominika Cibulkova in her final tune-up to Flushing Meadows.

She has been so put out that at a tournament at Stanford in July, during her late-night win over Aleksandra Wozniak, she actually got angry at some fans who were tiring of her play.

"It's kind of annoying sometimes when people are like, 'Pull it together, Melanie,' and they yell at me kind of," she said. "Really, like you get down here and play. I know they mean it in a good way, like to say, 'C'mon, Melanie,' but you don't have to say 'Pull it together,' like, 'Get your energy up.' That's what some lady was telling me."

Though Oudin says she loves the U.S. Open, she almost seems to be dreading going to New York. At Wimbledon earlier this summer, she told a reporter who asked her about the U.S. Open that she was no longer discussing her 2009 performance and was surprised he didn't get the mental memo.

"I've been doing OK this year, not badly," she said. "I thought (the attention) would die down by now, but the fact the U.S. Open is coming again, it's, ‘Let's see if she can do it again,’ and I don't think it will be quiet at all for me."

By this point in the season, Oudin should have been able to get her head around her 2009 experience, meet the challenge and move on.

She did reach No. 31 in the rankings earlier this summer and has the tools to go further. She's fast and scrappy, features a forehand as a big weapon, volleys decently and isn’t a bad on-court thinker.

Her Fed Cup captain, Mary Joe Fernandez, said Oudin merely has hit a bump in the road.

“She's a really hard worker, and I have confidence in her, because every time she gets on court, she's trying to get better,” Fernandez said. “She's trying to get a better serve and be more aggressive. The tough thing for her is wanting to do more than she's capable of and trying to play bigger than what she has."

Oudin's serve, however, has been a wreck, and it's very attackable. Her backhand is consistent, but she needs to step into it more. And, at 5-foot-6, she is also having trouble contending with high kick serves. Plus, she's getting down on herself when losing and isn't gutting out matches like she did last year. Going into New Haven, she was 3-5 in three-set matches this year and 17-19 overall.

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"People are saying it's sophomore year. I don't believe in (the sophomore slump)," she said. "It's not a slump. Yes, the first year in the tour is the freshest. No one knows who you are, and I really like playing under those circumstances, but since I'm an American and not that many Americans are playing that well, everyone looks at me by one tournament. I went from the total underdog to someone who is supposed to win every tournament. The expectations from me went from zero to 100."

What Oudin appears to be saying is, because there is little American depth behind the Williams sisters, she has been tagged with a Next Great One label. She hasn't been, but she has earned the One to Watch label, which shouldn't be a bad thing for someone who says she aspires to be a great player.

If she keeps thinking she's being overly scrutinized, she's going to exit New York before she can grab a Sharpie and write "Believe" on her tennis shoes again this year. As in 2009, she has to play from her gut. If she does, she has second-week possibilities. If she doesn't, she'll walk away from the event as just another in a long list of stressed-out teenagers.

“The first year is always the best because no one knows you, and they feel the pressure because last year I'm just some kid coming up and not thinking much of me. And now everyone takes me seriously and knows my game well,” she said. “I feel like the target on my back is a lot bigger this year, and no one wants to lose to me.”