NEW YORK — At any Grand Slam where Melanie Oudin wasn't becoming a star, any of these other women would make a fine story.
Their names are Caroline Wozniacki, Kateryna Bondarenko and Yanina Wickmayer.
Like Oudin, they won matches Monday to make it to their first Grand Slam quarterfinals. Like Oudin, they are two wins away from the final and a possible meeting with Serena Williams for the U.S. Open title.
Nice stories, indeed, at a tournament that has been turned upside down.
But not nearly enough to knock Oudin, the 17-year-old sparkplug from Marietta, Ga., out of the headlines.
"Nice for a change that somebody's coming up we haven't heard about much before," said none other than men's No. 1 Roger Federer, who blew out No. 14 Tommy Robredo to win his 38th straight match at Flushing Meadows.
For the record, nobody asked Oudin what she thought about Federer on this day.
The 70th-ranked player in the world, sharing a room with her mom at a hotel in Manhattan, put together another come-from-behind upset in Queens, 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 over 13th-seeded Nadia Petrova.
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