Flushing Meadows, NY (My Sportsbook) - American teenager Melanie Oudin pulled off her second straight upstart of a Russian star, as Maria Sharapova was ousted by the Georgia native in Saturday's third-round action at the U.S. Open.
The 70th-ranked Oudin dismissed the 29th-seeded former world No. 1 Sharapova 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The upstart Oudin shocked fourth-seeded former U.S. Open runner-up Elena Dementieva here on Thursday.
The three-time major champion Sharapova captured a U.S. Open title back in 2006.
Sharapova had little trouble with Oudin in the opening set on Saturday, but the young American fought back and captured the second set on her seventh set point to surprise Sharapova and force a third and deciding stanza.
In the final set, Sharapova saved six break points to pull within 2-3 and then summoned a trainer to work on her right arm. The Russian superstar was sidelined for more than 10 months because of a right shoulder injury that wound up requiring surgery last year. She returned to the tour earlier this season.
In the first game following Sharapova's injury timeout, Oudin broke for a 4-3 edge. And then following several more breaks of serve on either side, Oudin found herself serving for the match at 6-5 and converted on her first match point with a forehand winner into a wide-open court.
The Marietta native Oudin broke into tears as she moved into the second week here for the first time in her blossoming career. The upstart American also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon this summer by shocking former top- ranked star Jelena Jankovic.
Sharapova imploded for 21 double faults and had her once-powerful serve broken eight times. Oudin was also broken on eight occasions in the 2-hour, 58-minute battle.
Oudin's fourth-round opponent will be another Russian, 13th-seeded Nadia Petrova, who was an easy 6-4, 6-1 victor against 21st-seeded Chinese Zheng Jie on Day 6 at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center.
Argentine Gisela Dulko reached the fourth round here for the first time in her career with a 6-3, 6-4 handling of Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova, who stunned the fifth-seeded 2008 U.S. Open runner-up Jankovic on Thursday.
