Miracle Melanie's Missing Confidence

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- It's a sick thing watching Melanie Oudin playing without confidence. Not that it's ever nice seeing anyone fly too high on nervous wings, but in Oudin's case, it's particularly wrong.

After all, she became America's sweetheart at the U.S. Open based entirely on the one word she had written on her shoes:

BELIEVE.

On Thursday, she lost in the first round in Indian Wells to 57th ranked journeyman Roberta Vinci, 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.

That's right, 6-0. Crunch time. Gut-check time. You name the cliché.

Oudin, who is all fight, fell apart.

"Just wasn't my day today,'' she said. "Just nothing was working. Bad day at the office, I guess.''

When it comes to celebrities, America has an attention deficit problem, and has already tuned out Oudin. The whole sweetheart thing was a two-week story. So outside of the tennis world, no one has noticed the rocky path she has been on.

Just 18 years old, and she went back to her home in Georgia in late January, after her Australian Open collapse. She wanted to try to remember who she really was.

"I trained hard, and I got my mentality back as playing tennis for the love of the game, the way I've always played tennis because I've loved it,'' she said. "I kind of lost that a little at the Open.''

Oudin is doing things in reverse order, getting the stardom first, and then building her way up to it later. As long as she's ready for another run by this year's Open, most people will be fine with that.

"This year is definitely a learning year for me. Just because I had that U.S. Open, that great tournament, doesn't mean I know everything now.''
-- Melanie Oudin Inside the tennis world, though, she's not getting that kind of space. Even during player introductions Thursday, she was announced as the one who "stampeded'' her way to the U.S. Open quarterfinals.

"This year is definitely a learning year for me,'' she said. "Just because I had that U.S. Open, that great tournament, doesn't mean I know everything now.''

She followed her U.S. Open by not winning another match for four months. That took her all the way through the first round of the Australian Open, where she choked away a big lead.

She played too many matches, too many exhibitions, too many appearances and ran herself into the ground. She contracted a virus and was sick and weak.

"Bad tournament for me,'' she told me on an elevator in Melbourne a few days after her loss.

It happens. I still BELIEVE.

"Thank you.''

Well, I still do, but I'm going to scale down what that means. She is just 5-foot-5, and doesn't have enough of a serve. Her run in New York was based on her relentless attack on the nerves of star players. You can't always count on that against top players.

The problem is that Oudin is seen as the replacement to the Williams sisters, when the time and need come. Oudin already plays on the U.S. Fed Cup team, as the Williams sisters choose not to.

It's hard to find anyone else better suited than Oudin to be the next top American, post-Williams sisters. It's possible, too, that there just won't be one.

Because it's also hard to see her winning majors. Top 20? Yes. Top 10? Not sure I see that anymore. Another emotional run through a U.S. Open? Definitely.

Fortunately, the Williams sisters are planning to stick around for a while, because you see now what American tennis would be like without them. They boycott Indian Wells over racial taunts and threats their father, Richard Williams, said he heard years ago when the fans were heavily booing Venus and Serena.

Now, Oudin is out, too, leaving only a handful of Americans.

Well, however far Oudin will climb, she's not ready to be a star now.

But she did get hot after the Australian, winning two matches in the Fed Cup, and then three in a row in Paris before losing in three sets in the final to Elena Dementieva.

She followed that by getting to the quarters in Memphis despite being so sick she couldn't talk.

A sinus infection, she said Thursday.

Well, that's cleared, and the momentum was back. She came to Indian Wells ranked No. 41, and was no longer so far out ahead of her learning curve.

And then this. Her growth isn't going to be a straight line.

"My confidence is fine,'' she said.

We'll wait. For now.

E-mail me at gregcouch09@aol.com