I have nothing but praise for Melanie. I have a lot to say about this impressive teen later. For now and excerpt of an earlier article....

Save using two hands on her backhand most of the time, she has a remarkably familiar playing style. When she takes her left hand off of the racquet to hit her slice backhand, she appears to be Justine's doppleganger.

It would have been easy to flip by that match while channel surfing and think “that must be an encore match because Justine has called it quits."

Unless Marietta Georgia has been relocated to Belgium, this is simply not possible.

After scrapping her way through qualifying to make it into the main draw, and performing well in Federation Cup Play, 17 year old Melanie Oudin is proving that American tennis is not dead.

You may wonder why I have waited so long to mention her name. Maybe it was just to peak your interest?

The truth is I believe that if she continues developing as she has this year, this will be the last time that her name is not at the beginning of an article.

Her play is exactly the opposite of what you would expect from a small tennis player. Instead of simply running down her opponent’s shots waiting for an error, she takes a different approach.

Years ago, Justine Henin was faced with a similar choice. Stay behind the baseline and be a top 20 player, or step in take the ball early and hit some higher risk shots. The more aggressive approach can put you inside the top ten if you are able to pull it off. If not, you will be lucky to be in the top 50.

Oudin appears to have the mind and the game to take this aggressive approach to the upper echelon of the game. Hats off to Oudin and her coaching staff for her development so far, I believe that Grant Stafford of RCS Academy has some credit for her success.

See the rest of this article at the link below.

Link