Welcome to the big time, Mel: Oudin signed endorsement deal before US Open loss

Oudin signed deal before US Open loss

NEW YORK — So here is what 17-year-old Melanie Oudin of Marietta, Ga., was doing about 20 minutes before heading out to play in the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of her nascent career: affixing her signature to an endorsement contract.

Welcome to the big time, Mel.

Oudin insisted Thursday that bit of business didn’t affect her play in any way during a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Caroline Wozniacki the night before.

“I knew I was going to. It wasn’t a big deal. My coach was, like, ‘Just go ahead and do it now.’ All I did was sign a piece of paper,” Oudin said.

Speaking generally about the off-court demands on her time, Oudin said: “It’s kind of hard if you don’t how to separate the two. But for me, when I play on the court, I don’t really think about anything but the ball and my opponent and me.”

According to SportsBusiness Journal, the multiyear deal with a data-mining firm is believed to be for a six-figure sum guaranteed annually, plus performance bonuses.

Oudin was back at the tournament grounds Thursday, hanging out in the players’ lounge and showing zero signs of being down about the way her surprising run finished.

Sure, Oudin cried tears of sadness right after being beaten, but that stopped after she met her coach, Brian de Villiers, outside the locker room. He reminded her what a joy the past 1½ weeks were.

“He’s like, ‘No tears.’ And, ‘You should be so proud of yourself. You did an unbelievable job. I’m really proud of you.’ There’s nothing that I should be disappointed about here because I gave it my all, and that’s, like, the best I could do,” she said.

Oudin was not planning on picking up a racket Thursday.

She needs some time off.

“I’m exhausted, like, from everything,” she said. “It was a really long two weeks for me.”

Still, there is more heady stuff ahead.

Oudin plans on buying a Rolex watch with some of her $175,000 in prize money for reaching the U.S. Open quarterfinals. Might spend some of that on a new outfit or two for her appearances Monday on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show and the “Tonight Show.”

DOUBLES AT THE HALL: Led by the pairings of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, and Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva, doubles specialists dominate the list of nominees for the 2010 class at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

Woodbridge holds the ATP record for most doubles titles in the Open era, with 83, and spent 204 weeks ranked No. 1 in men’s doubles. He and Woodforde — nicknamed “The Woodies” — won 61 titles together, including 11 at Grand Slam tournaments. They were the first team in the 20th century to win five consecutive titles at Wimbledon.

They also won a doubles gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and a silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Woodforde was ranked No. 1 in doubles for 84 weeks.

Fernandez and Zvereva won six consecutive Grand Slam doubles titles from 1992-93, only part of their career haul.

The fifth “recent player” category nominee is Anders Jarryd, who completed a career Grand Slam in doubles and finished with 59 total doubles titles with 19 partners.

Other nominees:

— master player category: Owen Davidson, Peter Fleming, Bob Lutz;

— contributor category: Brad Parks, Nick Bollettieri, Derek Hardwick, Eiichi Kawatei.

The inductees will be announced in January.