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Believe it: Melanie Oudin Here to Stay

Lisa Olson — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:05:00 EST

Filed under: Tennis

NEW YORK -- Does the word "Believe" scripted on Melanie Oudin's shoes carry any less weight now that she has been knocked out of the U.S. Open? Should she scratch madly at those seven letters, pretend they were conceived out of nothing more than a childish whim?

Of course not, because to do so would suggest Oudin never really possessed the sort of inner faith many of us could only hope to achieve in a lifetime of attempts and failures and do-overs. She is 17 years old, and when Oudin wakes today she'll believe more than ever.

It is the conceit of teenagers to think they can do anything at anytime. They are invincible, indestructible. In the next breath, they are a bundle of angst and insecurities. And teenage girls? Their moods fluctuate as often as the wind. Anyone who has ever been a teenage girl or raised one or been around one when the malls open understands this irrefutable truth: these creatures are usually a broken fingernail away from coming unhinged.

Report: Oudin's Father Filed for Divorce Last Year
Couch: Oudin Rises, Falls in NY Minute | Moore: Oudins Good for Game

Even Serena Williams has admitted to suffering from bouts of "LSE" -- her term for "low self-esteem." In a rare glimpse of vulnerability, Williams once admitted, "I'm a little insecure and I'm working on it. A lot of females that are in a position where they're really successful might just go home and be a little insecure."

That's what makes Oudin such a fresh and welcome figure on the tennis circuit. She was on the wrong end of a 6-2, 6-2 quarterfinal defeat Wednesday night to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark who, at 19, is technically still a teen herself. But Wozniacki is also a polished veteran of a tour that can be cutthroat and mean girls vicious. She needed only 88 minutes under the bright lights of Arthur Ashe court to put away the kid from Marietta, Ga., and then charmed the pro-American crowd by basically apologizing for ruining their evening and Oudin's magical romp through the Open.

"It was a really tough match for me against Melanie. I mean, she's had such a great run, such a great tournament. It's always tough to play against a home favorite," said the ninth-seeded Wozniacki, after rushing her opponent through a string of early unforced errors and eradicating the dazzling forehand and footwork that had swept Oudin through much of the fortnight.

Oudin's post-match tears were brief, private. By the time she reached the interview room, she had reverted to the bubbly, vivacious teen who has enchanted the country and given hope to American girls that they, too, might reach a level that lately has been occupied mostly by the sisters out of Compton, Calif. At 5-6, with a gymnast's coiled build, Oudin hasn't the power of Serena or Venus, but she shares the one trait that has always separated them from much of the pack.

The girl believes.

"Now I realize that, " Oudin began, and she inhaled softly, her voice rising in a kind of Valley Girl cadence. "I mean, I got to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, so I know that hopefully I can do it again and again."

She spoke in giddy exclamation points, after struggling through a match in which her impatience seemed to overrule the guile and dazzling footwork that had helped her knock off two U.S. Open champions. Ranked No. 70 entering the tournament, the spunky teenager beat a string of taller, higher-ranked Russians, her cult following gaining speed every time Oudin nailed a forehand winner.

By Wednesday afternoon, the Oudin entourage was a mixture of nerves and wide-eyed conviction that the kid who still does the gardening at her local tennis club couldn't fail. Oudin and her boyfriend Austin Smith, a soon-to-be 16-year-old on the juniors circuit who doesn't mind playing second fiddle to his GF, arrived at Flushing Meadows around noon, practiced, fidgeted, ate, fidgeted, hit the practice courts again and paced some more waiting for Oudin's first grand slam quarterfinals to begin.

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Hoping for More Oudin Magic

Michele Stanford (L) and Charlotte Kitchen (R) react from the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, Georgia after Melanie Oudin lost her match on September 09, 2009. Oudin who lost to Caroline Wozniacki at the U.S. Open in the match trains at the club. Photo by Tami Chappell

Tami Chappell

Hoping for More Oudin Magic

Tami Chappell

Members of the Racquet Club give a standing ovation after the match of Melanie Oudin as they watched from the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, Georgia on September 09, 2009. Oudin who lost to Caroline Wozniacki at the U.S. Open trains at the club. Photo by Tami Chappell

Tami Chappell

Coach Jan Steffen who coaches Katherine Oudin, who is the twin sister of Melanie Oudin at The Walker School in Marietta, Georgia on September 09, 2009. Steffen coaches Katherine at The Walker School while Melanie trains at the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, Ga. Picture on screen is of Katherine Oudin. Photo by Tami Chappell

Tami Chappell

Ansley Reynolds reacts to a point as she watches the match of Melanie Oudin from the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, Georgia on September 09, 2009. Oudin who played Caroline Wozniacki in the match trains at the club. Photo by Tami Chappell

Tami Chappell

David Brunelle (L) and Mary Cropper (R), cheer as they watch the match of Melanie Oudin from the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, Georgia on September 09, 2009. Oudin who played Caroline Wozniacki in the match trains at the club. Photo by Tami Chappell

Tami Chappell

It was also her first quarterfinals night match, and when it was delayed so the day crowd could exit and the evening crowd could arrive -- try moving 23,000 folks in and out quickly, at rush hour -- Oudin became understandably antsy. She rushed up the stairs to the players lounge, looking for a familiar face.

"What should I do for 35-40 minutes? That's forever!" she told Brian de Villiers, her longtime coach. The entourage -- de Villiers, Smith, mom Leslie, Oudin's fraternal twin Katherine and younger sister Christine -- ushered Oudin to the cafeteria for a plate of comfort food.

Her coach says it's the sacrifices, the 6 AM practice times and lack of normal social life, that set Oudin apart from almost every other teen. He never has to wind her up or soothe her hurt feelings. "She's not like other girls in American tennis," de Villiers said. "So many of them don't want to trade in the comforts and dream really big. They don't really believe in themselves, not to the level it takes to really be the best. Melanie does. She always has."

Soon the entourage was pulling black T-shirts over their summer attire, the word "Believe" stretched across their chests. It was the tousled haired Smith, the 15-year-old boyfriend, who came up with the slogan, though to call it that makes it sound trite. She called him before the tournament, said her sponsor wanted her to think of a word to etch on her electric pink and yellow tennis shoes. Her name was too obvious, Melanie told Austin. Did he have a better suggestion?

"Believe was the first thing that came to mind," Smith said. "I always thought the word meant so much. It can go a lot of ways but when I think of belief I think of believing you can do whatever you put your mind to."

In the near year they've been dating, Smith said he's never witnessed Oudin have a weak moment where she doesn't think she's good enough, strong enough, worthy of it all. You know, the typical moment most teenage girls experience about 100 times a day.

"Never. She really doesn't care what anyone thinks," said Smith, a top-10 player in the boys' under-14s who met Oudin while they were both training at Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, Ga.

It's the cocoon of strength around Oudin that nurtures her confidence, keeps it in check. De Villiers pushes her to overcome her size by playing smarter than everyone, and using all her weapons. "This kid," he said of Oudin, "she'd never do that bang-bang-bang stuff you see all the time in juniors and everywhere else. She knows better than that. " Katherine, the twin who attends regular high school while Melanie is home-schooled, pursues her own dreams of being an obstetrician, but keeps her sister in the teen loop with tales from her own chosen path, like the wonders of prom and homecoming dances.
"[When] I really think about it, I really have had an incredible two weeks. I should be proud of myself," Oudin said.
Leslie, mother of the wunderkind, can't quite explain the formula behind raising such a self-assured teenager -- it might be easier explaining how to build the atom bomb -- but even after Oudin's stunning trip through the Open came to an end, it was fairly clear there wouldn't be many crying fits in the night ahead.

"We've tried to lay a foundation of being appreciative of what you have," said Leslie, who has been sharing a king size bed with Melanie at their midtown hotel. "Melanie's very unique and she's very gifted. She's had more experiences at a younger age [but] if somebody wants to be a doctor or a lawyer they go after it. Maybe [we] started a little earlier. Very seldom do you hear ... her complain or doubt herself. She might need a break now and then but she's always wanted to play."

(Hours later, after Melanie and her entourage had left the tennis grounds, SI.com broke a story based on records from Cobb County (Ga.) Superior Court showing that Melanie's father, John, filed for divorce from Leslie, on July 24, 2008. In the complaint, John Oudin filed for divorce on grounds of adultery, alleging that his wife had been unfaithful with Melanie's coach, Brian de Villiers. In her response to the complaint, dated Aug. 12, 2008, Leslie Oudin denied the allegation. Though the initial complaint was filed last summer, the Oudin's family strife hadn't been widely reported until the SI.com story appeared following Wednesday's quarterfinal match.)

There was a momentary huddle after the loss to Wozniacki, when Oudin buried her face in a pink towel to hide her tears and apologized to her coach and mother and sisters for ... well, for what? They told her to stop being so tough on herself, that she had survived an astonishing couple of weeks. Losing isn't good enough, she muttered, but in a matter of minutes she was back to bouncing on her striking ping-and-yellow toes and embracing the moment.

"[When] I really think about it, I really have had an incredible two weeks. I should be proud of myself," Oudin said.

In the next beat, she began chatting about her crazy time here, the experiences she never imagined having -- but not because she didn't believe. But who could envision such delicious details? There was her win over Maria Sharapova on Arthur Ashe Stadium -- "Definitely did not see that coming!" Oudin gushed. There was Roger Federer seeking her out, telling her congratulations. And the voice in her head was reminding her to tell him congratulations about becoming a father of twins, all that stuff, "and my mind just kind of froze getting to meet him!"

"These past two weeks have been really different for me. I've gone from being just a normal like tennis player to almost everyone in the United States knowing who I am now," Oudin said. "I enjoyed it, but I don't think that affected my tennis game tonight at all. Because when I get on the court, I don't think about anything but the ball and where I'm playing and myself, how I'm going to play."

The girl believes, still. However you slice it, that's a win.

Believe it: Melanie Oudin Here to Stay originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:05:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Venus Williams, the First Lady of Tennis

Lisa Olson — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:25:00 EST

Filed under: Tennis

NEW YORK - So here is Venus Williams, with an aura that is just about as dazzling as her fuchsia dress. She has every right to be ornery, bummed, and short on answers. She has just meticulously unwrapped the god-awful thick contraption from her left knee, and now her skin itched with phantom crawlies, and as she went through the motion of sitting to standing, there was the unmistakable creak of bone-on-bone.

"It's been a pretty good day," she said cheerily, to a couple of young girls who were patiently waiting for the older Williams sister to sign their tennis balls. "Did you enjoy the match?"

Of course they did, they said through a spasm of giggles. As I observed this small snapshot of Venus' day from a few feet away, I couldn't help but think: So here is a mighty fine prototype of the modern female athlete.

At 29, Venus admits her off-court persona is sometimes closer to the 10-year-olds who follow her around the Flushing Meadows grounds. When the blinds are closed and the racquet is shoved aside, Venus says she can be so immature. We rarely see that playful, girlish side. What we see - what No. 3-seeded Venus continued to show us Wednesday as she fought through pain and vanquished 124th-ranked Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 6-2, to advance to the third round of the U.S. Open - is a woman in full.

There are plenty of capable female role models in sports, and for some reason Venus is often left out of the conversation. It might be because she is often viewed as a Siamese twin to sister Serena, the better tennis player of the two and certainly the more controversial. But Venus is not Serena. Venus is the sort of athlete and sportswoman all young girls should hope to emulate.

The Williams sisters haven't always remembered to compliment their opponents, an irritating quirk pounded into their psyche at a young age, by a father who taught them it was his family against everybody else. Maturation and a more intuitive vision of how the world works has helped Venus blossom into a graceful ambassador of tennis.

So here is a mighty fine prototype of the modern female athlete. She was quick to praise Mattek-Sands' serve Wednesday, to note her opponent's aggressiveness. People kept trying to entice Venus into sharing details about her injury (it is thought to be patellar tendonitis, but considering Venus subscribes to the Bill Belichick school of communication, it could be anything; her ankle is also rumored to be not well). Venus was given several opportunities, in her post-match press conference and in conversations with fans, to elaborate on a condition that has dogged her all summer, and will likely keep her from reaching the finals of a tournament she last won in 2001.

"I hate this thing," was all she would say of the strapping contraption that curled around, above and below her knee. "Maybe if it were in pink or black, I could deal with it."

While her father Richard stood near a tunnel and squirmed every time his daughter stretched on a drop shot, Venus was clearly stronger than she had been two days earlier, when she barely escaped losing in the first round to Vera Dushevina. As Wednesday's match gained steam, as Richard continued to grimace, Venus defended strongly off her backhand and served decently, despite having limited explosion off her left leg. She won match point with a 117-mph serve.

"I told her she should pull out with a knee swollen like that. Both her knees are really hurting. She hasn't been moving well at all, not at all," Richard Williams said before the match.

"She was moving like a cat," Mattek-Sands said after it.

Between those disparate pairs of eyes is Venus' reality. She can't quite pace around with her usual sublime elegance, not with that brace and those knees, and her limited mobility slows her ostrich-like strides. Richard, subtle as ever, compared Venus to "a mule," in trying to illustrate her stubbornness. Perhaps it will be the trait that pushes her through this fortnight.

"I think I was moving pretty good," Williams said. "I put all my focus on my shots, getting to the ball. I try not to think about anything else.

"I'm very determined to play my best tennis, despite everything," she said. "I love playing this event and I'm going to do my best to win every round. That's what it is for me."

The thick bandage was similar to the support wrap that held together her knee at Wimbledon, when Venus, the seven-time Grand Slam single champion, lost to her sister Serena in the final. Venus won only one match in August, but hoped physical therapy and the magic powers of ice might carry her through the sport's final stretch.

After Monday's near loss, after she was forced to hail a trainer to help quiet her creaking knee and after a series of foot-fault missteps caused her mind to temporarily wander, Venus said it "would take a lot of prayer" if she were to recover in time for Round 2. She was dour and worried, but then came a mental shift across the next 24 hours.

She can follow her father's wishes and go home, or at least drop out of playing doubles with her sister. Or she can feed off the energy playing in New York clearly provides, and maybe get a visceral lift through the pain when she thinks of the joy on the faces of the young girls who trailed her around the Open campus Wednesday. Separated by close to two decades from her adoring groupies, the product of Compton's streets and the lady who now resides in a South Florida mansion joked with the girls as if she were one of them.

"I'm still playing well and I feel I'll continue to play better as the rounds go on," Venus said. "I'm trying not to make this injury a factor at all."

She's everything we need in a role model: powerful and fit, gracious and graceful, outspoken and independent, cultured and curious about the world outside the chalk lines. Venus Williams needed time to grow into the woman before us. A wrecked knee can't damage any of that.

Venus Williams, the First Lady of Tennis originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:25:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even on Spirited Court, True Bravery Remains Tough to Come By

Lisa Olson — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:10:00 EST

Filed under: Tennis

Courage is in the eye of the beholder. Rational folks will agree that Andy Roddick has it coursing through his veins, after he became the only player to do the right thing by refusing to play in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships because of the tournament's reprehensible discriminatory policy.

Venus Williams took a swig from the courage chalice, too, when, upon receiving the Dubai championship trophy Saturday, she spoke about Shahar Peer, the Israeli player who was refused entry by the United Arab Emirates on the eve of one of the world's most lucrative tournaments. In front of the Dubai crowd, Williams referenced Peer's plight, and later expounded on her decision to speak publicly about sport's political hot potato, when a simple curtsy and "thank you" would have made for a safer exit.

"I felt like I had to talk about her," said Williams, after earning her 40th singles title by defeating France's Virginie Razzano, 6-4, 6-2. "I thought it was brave of (Peer) to come here and try and play despite knowing that it is not going to be easy for her. My dad grew up in an area where if you spoke too much, it was your life. So I felt I had a small opportunity to say something where everyone will listen.

"I am not here to rock any boat or upset people, I am just here to do things that are right," Williams said. "And I think right things are already happening next week and right things will happen next year."

Next week is when the men arrive for their spin around the world's most lavish sporting playground. Whether the game is tennis, golf, cricket or soccer, Dubai goes to extraordinary lengths to please visiting professional athletes, as long as they do not hail from Israel. The prizes are lucrative, the amenities obscene. Even in this economy, sponsors and well-heeled fans flock to events in Dubai, an upper-class cousin of Las Vegas and ostensibly one of the Middle East's more modern locations. That Roddick chose to boycott the tournament he won last year says everything you need to know about his class, his cojones.

Clearly, the Dubai tennis officials haven't an ounce of either, choosing to announce that the 45th-ranked Peer's visa had been denied a mere 12 hours before the women's tournament began last week, after the other players had already arrived in Dubai. Peer, whose name was in the main draw, had applied for the visa two months earlier, with assurances from the Women's Tennis Association that she would be welcome in Dubai. But at the last minute, tournament organizers cited concerns for Peer's security, saying they feared anger over Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip would evolve into huge protests and riots throughout the Persian Gulf if she were allowed to play.

The backlash over the tournament's cowardly decision apparently trumped whatever fear officials had of an Israeli tennis player hitting backhands on their luxurious grounds, because the UAE suddenly reversed form, deciding Andy Ram, another Israeli, would be allowed to play in the men's tournament after all. The decision, said tournament officials, was "in line with the UAE's commitment to a policy of permitting any individual to take part in international sports, cultural and economic events or activities being held in the country, without any limitation being placed on participation by citizens of any member country of the United Nations."

There was no mention of Peer, no apology. A cynic might wonder why they so feared a female Israeli. By waiting until the 11th hour to deny Peer's visa, government officials and organizers knew it would be extremely difficult for sponsors to cancel or relocate the tournament. Nonetheless, the Tennis Channel refused to air coverage of the tournament and the Wall Street Journal Europe withdrew its event sponsorship. Courage beat financial commitments.

Barclays, the tournament's main sponsor, has been curiously silent about the issue, never even mentioning on its Web site Peer or her banishment, or Venus' statement to the crowd, or Roddick's personal boycott. Cowardice rules financial gain.

It would have been fantastic, if unrealistic, had Sony Ericsson, the WTA Tour's namesake, pulled up stakes and left the tournament high and dry in the desert in the hours after Peer was denied entry. But after days of immense pressure from many ports, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour did levy an unprecedented series of fines, penalties and warnings against the event. The tour's board, in an emergency meeting, decided Peer will receive monetary compensation (some will go to her doubles partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany), and fined the tournament $300,000 for breaching tour rules. The Dubai tournament will also have to meet a number of conditions if it wants to stage the event next year, including the guarantee that Peer will earn at least a wild card in the main draw. Money muscle trumps words.

It would have been outstanding, if surreal, had any of Peer's friends and colleagues chosen to take the ultimate stand, and step away from a tournament that discriminates. The UAE government cost Peer ranking points and prize money, the two links that chain together every tennis player. Tennis by nature is a selfish sport, with everyone out for themselves; we'd be fools to think they are singing Kumbaya in the locker room.

But just as politics and sports have long been intertwined, individuals in tennis have been known to fight for the common good. In the height of apartheid in the 1970s, Arthur Ashe endeavored to have the South African tournament removed from the tour. In 1973, after the Yugoslav tennis federation suspended Niki Pilic, 81 of his fellow professionals withdrew from the Wimbledon championship in protest.

What would it take for today's players, especially those on the female side of the draw, to put down their racquets in Dubai, or any other place that placed bigotry over fairness? Jelena Jankovic, a Serbian who understands political strife, said, "[Peer] is a great player. She has the right to play in this tournament and she's an athlete. This is sport. And you shouldn't mix sport and politics." But Jankovic didn't leave the tournament until she lost in the third round.

Venus Williams was asked Saturday if she'd contemplate not returning as the defending champion, maybe follow in Roddick's footsteps.

"Obviously, Andy Ram got his visa, so I'll be happy to come and defend next year," she said. "If everyone is not given the equal opportunity to play, I'd rethink. But I love this tournament. They really care about the players."

Unless they are from Israel, she might have added. This is not to pick on Venus, who along with her sister Serena has faced an inordinate amount of discrimination. The Williams sisters correctly, bravely have held their own personal boycott of the tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., following a vow they made in 2001 to never return after the sisters and their father were cruelly heckled during a match.

Roddick seems to be standing alone, for the moment. His reason for skipping a tournament with $2 million in prize money was both simple and profound. "I really don't agree with what went on over there," he said. "I don't know if it's the best thing to mix politics and sports, and that was probably a big part of it."

Both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have withdrawn from this week's Dubai Tennis Championships, Federer citing a recurring back injury while Nadal has a knee injury. Federer, especially, will be missed, considering his home and primary training facilities are in Dubai. He has talked often about the city's cosmopolitan flavor, its tourist-friendly hotels and restaurants and opulent sporting grounds. Would he dare speak against the UAE and its duplicitous policies? His back problems, while quite real (he has also pulled out of an upcoming Davis Cup match), are a convenient solution to an inconvenient mess.

We think we spot courage all the time on courts and fields, in stadiums and gymnasiums. In truth it's still a rare commodity, even amongst the strongest.

Even on Spirited Court, True Bravery Remains Tough to Come By originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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