London, September 06: Maria Sharapova spoke softy while trying to explain her astonishing loss to teenager Melanie Oudin in the third round of the US Open.
“With the amount of errors I made from both my groundstrokes and my serve, to be able to get it to three sets is not bad,” she said after Oudin’s 3-6 6-4 7-5 victory.
“So if I didn’t make those errors, those double faults, I certainly would have won the match.”
Sharapova gift-wrapped the match for Oudin by serving up a mind-boggling 21 double faults and committing 63 unforced errors amid perfect conditions on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 22-year-old Russian was at a loss to explain her serving woes, refusing to use her right shoulder surgery last October as an excuse.
“Just couldn’t decelerate today,” she said. “I was hitting second serves no less than 95 miles per hour. I even tried to hit it less and I just couldn’t.”
The bevy of double-faults allowed the 17-year-old Oudin to break Sharapova’s serve eight times and open the door to the stunning upset before a capacity crowd of nearly 24,000.
Though they have vastly different playing styles, the excitement generated by the Oudin, who stunned fourth seed Elena Dementieva in the previous round, is reminiscent of a young Sharapova, who burst on the scene in 2004 as a 17-year-old Wimbledon champion.
Few people are predicting that the diminutive Oudin will be holding the U.S. Open winner’s trophy next Saturday but the native of Marietta, Georgia, has clearly become the darling of the Flushing Meadows fans.
When Oudin scorched a forehand winner to end the three-hour match, she raised her arms, dropped her racket and had to hold back tears. The crowd roared for the wide-eyed teen.
“She has a great amount of potential considering at her age, to get to the fourth round of the U.S. Open and to beat Elena, and come out and play three sets against me and come out with a win and still have an opportunity to go further in the tournament,” offered a bitterly disappointed Sharapova.
“Considering she’s really young, I certainly think she has a great future ahead of her.”
Oudin, who at 1.68 metres tall is 20 cm shorter than Sharapova, will play 13th seeded Russian Nadia Petrova in the fourth round. Sharapova, meanwhile, leaves the year’s final grand slam wondering what might have been.
“She certainly held her ground,” said Sharapova. “I still feel like I had my chances, even though it wasn’t my best day. When you let those chances go, it’s just frustrating.
“I got to hand it to her. She really stuck to her game plan. She played solid. She made me hit a lot of balls.”
-Agencies