WIMBLEDON, JUNE 23- Forget Paris, this is Wimbledon, home of multiple US Open era champions including seven-time champ Pete Sampras, five-time titlist Venus Williams, three- time victor John McEnroe, as well as Czech born and US citizen Martina Navratilova, who won nine titles.
So on Tuesday at Wimbledon, 13 Americans came on court, having successfully brushed the burning red clay off their toes and ready to rumble on sun-soaked green turf. This is a tournament where the great Americans have done great, the average folks have overachieved, the marginal players have sniffed one day of positive headlines.
It was by no means a terrific Tuesday, or a terrible Tuesday either, so like call it a marginal Tuesday, as Americans won five of 13 contests.
Venus and two-time finalist Andy Roddick both expectedly pushed through, while teens Melanie Oudin and lefty Jesse Levin scored sizeable upsets, and the scrappy Vania King also made some hay.
Roddick beat up Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3 in a classic, first strike grass court battle; Venus put down Stefanie Voegele 6-3, 6-2; the 17-year-old Oudin won her first Slam match by out-fighting Sybille Bammer, the 29th seed, 4-6, 6-4,-2, while the left-handed Levine stunned 2008 semifinalist Marat Safin 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4. King took a fine late day 6-4, 6-2 victory over Mariya Koryttseva of the Ukraine.
But many others went down, including: Robert Kendrick, who fought valiantly (can’t we say that about Americans too in England?) but lost to Andy Murray on Centre Court 7-5, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4; Kevin Kim, who fell to David Ferrer in four; Wayne Odesnik, who lost to Juergen Melzer in three; Robby Ginepri, who fell in three to Lleyton Hewitt; Rajeev Ram, who went down to Philipp Petzschner in four; Bobby Reynolds, who lost to Gilles Simon in three; Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who went down to Samantha Stosur in three; and sadly, Alexa Glatch, who was up 4-2 in the third set and froze in a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 loss to Peng Shuai.
As Roddick says, it would be heartening to see a few other Americans make it through to the second week at Wimbledon, as he’s expected to be around, as are Venus and Serena Williams, but everyone else is up in the air and may end finding sadness in the grass, rather than splendor.
The small yet fast Oudin might too expressive for some, yelling out C’mon! after every winner, but she’s largely a breath of fresh of air, as she’s constantly pushing herself, taking big cuts at her forehand, scampering around, trying to enjoy the pressure moments. While Bammer played a lazy last second set, Oudin shook off her nerves and pounced on the short balls, showing the larger world just why U.S. Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez picked her for a spot on the team last February.
“When I saw the draw and saw I was playing Bammer, it was funny to play someone I had beaten before and it was a huge back then in October because it was my base win,” said Oudin, who qualified for Wimbledon, fighting off two match points in the first round against Sophie Ferguson. “I was really nervous most of the match today, but I finally calmed down in the third and played my game, moving better, making her play more and then she started to break down a bit and I got on top of her.”
Oudin, who stands 5-foot-6, admitted that despite her upset of Bammer last fall, that wasn’t the favorite as she has little Slam experience, let along grass court experience. She recalls playing one grass court tournament in the States, in Philadelphia. But qualifying gave her three good matches and with her quick feet and ability to stay low to the ball, she’s pretty dangerous.
“I’m shorter than most players so take it as advantage because I’m lower to the ground and can bend for hard flat balls,’ said 5-foot-6 Oudin who is coached privately by Brian DeVilliers and competed on under the watchful eyes of the USTA ‘s Jose Higueras on Tuesday.” I’ve improved a lot in every aspect. But I have weaknesses to get better at and my strengths to get even better.”
Oudin is only ranked No. 124, but has a shot of at cracking the top 100 if she can win a couple m ore matches here. She’s not quite on the locker room radar yet, having met Venus Williams at Fed Cup in 2007, but having never talked to Serena, whom she finds is always surrounded by a phalanx of security guards.
Oudin knows Venus’ hitting partner David Witt, as well as Venus’ longtime boyfriend, Hank Kuehne, and still talks to both of them, but has yet to become a major thread in the fabric of U.S. tennis. It will take a few more wins like she had on Wednesday to garner more notice.
”It’s kind of hard when you are coming up because with the older girls you have to prove yourself to be able to fit in,” she said.
Glatch Falls to Peng
Oudin’s Fed Cup teammate, Glatch had a very difficult loss, littering the court with unforced errors in the last four games of her loss. She was granted a wildcard here and coming off her excellent Fed Cup performance and armed with a threatening fast court game, there’s was reason to hope she could make a push.
But Peng kept the ball in play and Glatch consistently found the bottom of the net when it really counted. She was quite disappointed and said she needs more experience on the big stage.
“I kind of backed off,” she said. “At the end I felt like it was slipping away and I was hoping I would do better than in previous times, but I was finding it hard to win points. The toughest thing to do is to win the last point and I’m not sure whether it’s mental of physical.”
Roddick by no means has been a perfect Slam player over the past year, but he can usually be counted on to make a reasonable push, which can’t be said of his countrymen. Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey will both go off against Eastern Euros on Wednesday, Fish against Janko Tipsarevic and Querrey on Centre Court again Marin Cilic. Both will be dicey matches, but winnable.
“They’re certainly capable,” Roddick said. “They serve huge. Mardy returns very well. Mardy’s certainly capable. He’s done well in big tournaments like the Olympics. He did well at the Open last year. He’s made the finals of a couple of Masters Series events. At this point Sam, it would be great for him to kind of make that next push, really get out there. I think he’s capable. I mean, anytime you can serve from 6’6″, he’s got a pretty fluid motion. It’s just a matter of putting it there day to day. Just as an American tennis fan, I’d like to see it, but also as a friend I’d like to see them do well.”
Levine did quite well in ending Safina’s career at Wimbledon, one where the two-time Slam champ said he had two decent runs, and only one notable victory, over Novak Djokovic last year. His is a long story for another day, but the 21-year-old Levine’s tale was of one day, when he won almost all the big points against a much larger and experienced man. Ranked No. 1333, Levine hadn’t had one notable tour win this year, but he qualified for the tournament and flew about the court, impressing even the hard to impress Safin.
“I’m still kind of feeling weird right now that I just beat Safin because I’ve always kind of watch him on TV,” said Levine.
Even though he’s younger than both Fish and James Blake, Roddick has unquestionably become the leader of US men’s tennis and makes himself accessible to those who want to discuss the ins and outs of the tour, as well as matches. It’s not only because that he’s outspoken on numerous issues that he’s become the lead guy, it’s also because he leads by example, constantly tinkering with his game in hopes of catching the Big 4 and always fighting like hell. Hopefully, his peers will do much the same during the fortnight.
“I’ll pick and choose my spots a little bit,” he said. “But certainly I think they know that I’m there if they ever want to bounce ideas off of anyone. It’s a little bit different maybe sometimes coming from a player’s perspective, because we’re living it. I mean, just having a different voice telling you something.
But, sometimes I’ve played everyone out here about 86 times each now, so sometimes they’ll come and ask a scouting report or something like that. I’m always happy to help where I can.”
From TennisReporters.net
