Youngster Oudin continues hot streak

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:47

The 17-year-old world number 70 from Marietta, Georgia, had already eliminated fourth seed Elena Dementieva and former champion Maria Sharapova, the No. 29 and she returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium to come from a set down to add 13th seed Nadia Petrova to her list of victims and reach the last eight.

“It’s kind of hard to explain how I’ve done it,” Oudin said. “There are no tears because I believed I could do it and it’s like now that I know that I do belong here.”

Oudin had been in tears after beating Sharapova but she was all business in beating Petrova 1-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 in front of a wildly enthusiastic New York crowd enjoying an extra day off for Labour Day.

Oudin faces an all-teenage quarter-final against the only remaining seed in her half of the draw, 19-year-old ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark who came from a set down to defeat 2004 winner Svetlana Kuznetsova, the reigning French Open champion and sixth seed, in a third-set tie-break.

The day had begun in a decidedly lower key at Ashe when unseeded Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko whitewashed Argentina’s Gisela Dulko 6-0 6-0 in just 47 minutes.

At least one semi-finalist in the women’s draw will be unseeded as Bondarenko’s quarter-final opponent will be Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer, a 4-6 6-4 7-5 winner over Dinara Safina’s US Open conqueror Petra Kvitova.

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