Oudin Rallies Again at Open

Forget about forehands and backhands. Melanie Oudin's biggest weapon is her heart.

The 17-year-old sparkplug from Georgia proved it again Monday at the U.S. Open, extending her remarkable run to the quarterfinals with another come-from-behind victory, 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 over 13th-seeded Nadia Petrova.

Oudin staved off four points that would have put her behind 5-3 in the second set, then rolled through the third, hitting corners with those underrated groundstrokes and taking advantage of 22 unforced errors by her more-seasoned, higher-ranked opponent.

Rankings, like her age, however, are nothing but numbers.

The 70th-ranked player already had wins over No. 4 Elena Dementieva and No. 29 Maria Sharapova at Flushing Meadows, along with one over former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic at Wimbledon. Now, she's knocked off No. 13.

This time, however, she wasn't the one crying tears of disbelief. It was her twin sister, Katherine, sobbing in the stands.

"I'm so happy to be in my first quarterfinal Grand Slam everrrr," Oudin said in her postmatch on-court interview.

Oudin improved to 6-1 at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open this year when she's lost the first set. She is 17-4 overall this year in three-set matches.

"I started serving better, thought I could do it and - I did," she said.

In early action Monday, Kateryna Bondarenko put a 6-0, 6-0 thumping on Gisela Dulko to advance to the quarterfinals in a section of the draw that doesn't have any seeded players left.

On the men's side, No. 12 Robin Soderling, who upset Rafael Nadal en route to the French Open final, advanced to his first U.S. Open quarterfinal when eighth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko retired with a leg injury at the start of the fourth set.

One of the few things that has gone to form on the women's side has been the play of No. 2 Serena Williams, who advanced easily with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over No. 22 Daniela Hantuchova.

Serena, trying for her third major of the year, has not been challenged yet in this tournament.

"I just want to keep this level and just stay focused," she said.

Even if she does, the Williams-Williams semifinal that seemed all but carved into the bracket before this tournament began could now easily wind up Clijsters-Williams.

Given the way she played against Venus, who's to say Kim Clijsters can't be a threat to Serena, as well?

She became the first female wild-card entrant to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals and could become the first unseeded player to make the Open final since 1997, when Venus did it. She has no world ranking yet because she hasn't played enough tournaments since she came back.

When the latest match was over, Venus Williams conceded that a knee injury she suffered in the first round, which required heavy tape, might have hindered her efforts.

"I wasn't able to play 100 percent," she said.

Nor was Nadal, the headliner on the men's side Sunday.

He overcame a 10-minute medical break for an injury to his stomach muscles to defeat 32nd-seeded Nicolas Almagro, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.

Nadal missed Wimbledon with sore knees, and now must deal with injured abs that first cropped up last month in Cincinnati.

"I don't want to talk about injuries," Nadal said. "Sorry. No, no, I am a little bit tired to talk about injuries. I am here to try my best every day."

No. 2 Andy Murray also advanced with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over American Taylor Dent.

And while the women's draw has gone haywire, the men's is going to form - in an historic way: This marks the first time 14 of the top 16 seeds have advanced to the fourth round of the U.S. Open.

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Results Monday from the U.S. Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (seedings in parentheses):

Singles Men Fourth Round

Robin Soderling (12), Sweden, def. Nikolay Davydenko (8), Russia, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, retired.

Singles Women Fourth Round

Kateryna Bondarenko, Ukraine, def. Gisela Dulko, Argentina, 6-0, 6-0.

Melanie Oudin, United States, def. Nadia Petrova (13), Russia, 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3.

Doubles Men Third Round

Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione, Australia, def. Leos Friedl and Jaroslav Levinsky, Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-1.

Lukas Dlouhy, Czech Republic, and Leander Paes (4), India, def. Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer, Austria, 7-5, 6-4.

Mahesh Bhupathi, India, and Mark Knowles (3), Bahamas, def. Yen-hsun Lu, Taiwan, and Dudi Sela, Israel, 6-4, 6-4.

Daniel Nestor, Canada, and Nenad Zimonjic (2), Serbia, def. Robert Kendrick, United States, and Janko Tipsarevic, Serbia, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

Junior Singles Boys First Round

Jozef Kovalik, Slovakia, def. Harry Fowler, United States, 6-4, 7-6 (5).

Mikhail Biryukov, Russia, def. Richard Becker, Germany, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Alexandros Georgoudas, Germany, def. Sekou Bangoura, United States, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0.

Christian Lindell, Sweden, def. Facundo Arguello (10), Argentina, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Raymond Sarmiento, United States, def. Hsieh Cheng Peng, Taiwan, 7-5, 6-3.

Lim Yong-kyu (6), South Korea, def. Maximilian Neuchrist, Austria, 6-2, 6-4.

Gianni Mina (8), France, def. Yasutaka Uchiyama, Japan, 6-4, 6-4.

Alexander Domijan, United States, def. Sudanwa Sitaram, India, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Pierre-Hugues Herbert, France, def. Shuichi Sekiguchi (9), Japan, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Junior Singles Girls First Round

Beatrice Capra (16), United States, def. Anna Arina Marenko, Russia, 6-3, 6-2.

Gail Brodsky, United States, def. Veronica Cepede Royg, Paraguay, 7-5, 7-5.

Timea Babos (3), Hungary, def. Elina Svitolina, Ukraine, 6-3, 6-4.

Courtney Dolehide, United States, def. Cristina Dinu, Romania, 6-0, 4-6, 6-4.

Maryna Zanevska, Ukraine, def. Akiko Omae, Japan, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Grace Min, United States, def. Juan Ting-fei, Taiwan, 6-4, 6-2.

Anna Orlik, Belarus, def. Gabriela Dabrowski, Canada, 6-2, 6-4.

Lauren Embree (7), United States, def. Paula Kania, Poland, 7-5, 6-2.

Richel Hogenkamp (10), Netherlands, def. Paula Ormaechea, Argentina, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-2.

Yana Buchina, Russia, def. Stephanie Cornish, Britain, 6-4, 7-6 (9).

Junior Doubles Boys First Round

Stanislav Poplavskyy, Ukraine, and Radim Urbanek, Czech Republic, def. Andrea Collarini, Argentina, and Nikala Scholtz (5), South Africa, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 10-7 tiebreak.

Junior Doubles Girls First Round

Mallory Burdette and Sloane Stephens (4), United States, def. Annika Beck, Germany, and Despina Papamichail, Greece, 6-4, 6-2.