17-year-old Melanie Oudin’s New York story ends with loss to Caroline Wozniacki at US Open

Oudin leaves US Open with a different kind of life

NEW YORK — Melanie Oudin came to New York with a bag of rackets slung across her shoulder and a few modest goals.

She’ll leave with a different kind of life.

Her run at the U.S. Open ended Wednesday, but not before the 17-year-old from Marietta, Ga., spun both a quintessentially American story that happened to be about tennis, and a compelling tennis story that happened to be about an American.

Not exactly rags to riches, but she certainly did make it big in the Big Apple.

“See, for me, I don’t feel like a celebrity,” she said. “But some people think I’m one now and I guess that’s pretty cool.”

She will not be remembered so much for being shut down, 6-2, 6-2 to ninth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals, as for the heart she showed in three come-from-behind victories that got her there.

From No. 70 in the world to the final eight at Flushing Meadows. From an under-the-radar life wherever she went to a world of jostling paparazzi, autograph signing and an endorsement-filled future.

“It’s just different for me,” she said, “because I haven’t had to handle anything like that before.”

Roger Federer has been dealing with it for years.

After the Oudin loss, top-ranked Federer played 12th-seeded Robin Soderling and found himself in a tougher tussle than he might have expected. He came out with a 6-0, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (6) victory that extended his streak to 39 straight wins at the U.S. Open.

Just as impressively, he’s made 22 straight semifinals at Grand Slam tournaments.

“Not what I aimed for, that’s for sure,” Federer said. “I don’t know what to say. It’s probably one of the greatest records for me personally in my career. I’m glad it keeps going.”

Federer will play No. 4 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, after Djokovic’s 7-6 (2), 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over Fernando Verdasco.

In Thursday’s second set of men’s quarterfinals, No. 3 Rafael Nadal plays No. 11 Fernando Gonzalez and No. 6 Juan Martin del Potro plays No. 16 Marin Cilic.

Wozniacki, meanwhile, will face 50th-ranked Yanina Wickmayer in the most unexpected of U.S. Open women’s semifinals, with the winner going against either Serena Williams or Kim Clijsters.

Wickmayer’s story is a good one, too. The Belgian lost her mother to cancer at age 9 and picked up a tennis racket as refuge, simply hoping to get outside to clear her head during those sad days in the aftermath.

She was good, though, and in time, her dad was selling his pool company and moving with Yanina to Florida, where he enrolled her at the Saddlebrook tennis academy.

Ten years later, she’s one win away from the U.S. Open final.

“He just gave everything up for me,” Wickmayer said. “He just left. He listened to a girl that was 9 years old and left his life, left his dreams. I’m always going to respect him for that.”

For Oudin, the dreams came true quickly over nine electric days during which she became the darling of New York — and saw all the good and bad aspects of newfound fame.

Maybe too quickly, in some ways. By the end of it, she was dealing with a lot more than just tennis.

“Maybe mentally she wasn’t quite as focused as she should’ve been,” said her mother, Leslie Oudin. “All that comes with experience and she’ll learn how to handle this better.”

But trade the experience? Probably not.

“The thing for me is, I love to play tennis, and that all comes along with it if you do well and if you win,” she said. “And I mean, I’m ready for that if that’s what you have to do to do well in tennis. I’m not going to stop playing just because of that.”

She still has to keep improving, though.

Part of the formula in her three come-from-behind wins was that she was playing hard-hitting Russians — including Maria Sharapova — who made plenty of mistakes and fell into error-filled traps against Oudin’s steady counterpunching.

Against Wozniacki, the 19-year-old who has won more matches than anyone on the tour this year, Oudin essentially faced a carbon copy of herself.

“She plays incredible defense,” Oudin said. “Makes me hit a thousand balls and really is a really great player. I mean, I don’t know what else I could have done.”

Still, an hour after the match, it was hard to tell who won and who lost on this night at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where almost all the 23,881 fans had Oudin’s back, even cheering a few times when her opponent double-faulted.

Wozniacki stepped out the front door of the building, with one person by her side, in mint-green sweatpants. She got a polite round of applause from a dozen or so fans who happened to be standing there.

Oudin was still in the players’ courtyard doing TV interviews.

“I’m sorry that I won against Melanie today,” Wozniacki had said earlier to the partisan fans in her postmatch interview.

No need to be sorry. After this whirlwind trip to the big city, it looks like Melanie will be just fine.