Cinderella Story Comes to an End - Melanie Oudin outclassed by Caroline Wozniacki

New York, USA – So the Cinderella story found an ending but not the ending American tennis fans expected or hoped for really, as Melanie Oudin bowed out of the US Open with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Caroline Wozniacki.

Now Wozniacki is a lovely girl and an endearing personality on and off court. I mean how could you not warm to her or her infectious smile. And her post-match speech, precociously asking the New York crowd to support her in her next match now that she may have won over some of the hearts.

[Thought bubbles appeared over many a head at Arthur Ashe: Stop it, my heart is made of stone. Honestly].

But watching her tennis is just about as exciting as watching the slugs in my back yard slug their way from one end of my garden to the other.

To understand you have to brace yourselves for this stat, maybe even sit down, and put down the coffee you might be sipping on: Wozniacki advanced to the semis on the back of 5 (yup FIVE) whole winners for the entire (uninspiring) match.

Now, I won’t tell you I told you so, because it would be in such poor taste.It is too easy to gloat when somebody is down, or bestow generous self-praise for uncanny foresight. I like to think I am above that sort of behaviour.

But it was bound to happen (what? logical reasoning is not the same as a petty I told you so). ‘Tis the truth. Melanie Oudin was bound to come up short (no pun intended) finally against Caroline Wozniacki.

A tissue for you softies?

Here is the deal with this kid: she is a little babe trying to play big babe tennis –and don’t say she is another Justine Henin because I have had about all I can take of that nonsense. Just because someone is little doesn’t mean she is automatically a Henin – that is just heightism (if it is not a word, consider it created).

Melanie is to the woman’s game what Lleyton Hewitt is to the men’s game. Like Leyton, Melanie plays a bigger game than she is, and in doing so, manages to outlast bigger, strong opponents, with sheer belief, tenacity and unshakeable terrier-like mentality.

I pointed out recently (not to be a contrarian or anything of the like) that Oudin’s Cinderella run was aided by her last three opponents, who , with their own garden variety neurosis, gifted her the match – save for Shaza, who is still coming to terms with her new serve after suffering a shoulder injury.

Essentially, that is the problem in the women’s game today. More often than not, it is about outlasting than outclassing a player. Each player seems to have a dark place with a tendency to sojourn there in high stake matches – from Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic, Elena Dementieva, to Svetlana Kuznetsova, Jelena Jankovic and Vera Zvonareva (I’ll say, did you see that priceless meltdown – best ever in a grand slam methinks). In some cases it is not training hard enough (ahem, Ana – yes I am looking at you !) methinks.

Still, Oudin deserves all the mad props she received for reaching the quarters of the US Open. Not a huge fan of the sorbet sneakers and gimmicky marketing but it is an American thing and after all this is the US Open and something about this girl resonates with the whole country, indeed, the tennis world even. Equally, so goes for the Danish Delight, Wozniacki, tipped by the New Yorker only a few weeks ago as the next it thing in women’s tennis.