Melanie Oudin’s garishly coloured tennis shoes come with a special inscription she wrote herself on the instruction of her boyfriend.
‘Fearless’ is the word scrawled in felt-tip pen and Maria Sharapova is the latest member of the female tennis elite to know the 17-year-old’s actions match her word.
Admittedly, Sharapova, the US Open champion three years ago, played her part in ushering the precocious young talent through to the last 16 of this year’s tournament; anyone who manages to serve 21 double faults during the course of a three-set match cannot be termed anything other than hugely charitable.
However, it takes a certain degree of self-belief and courage for a relative newcomer to the world stage to take on the game’s most famous and marketable player in the glare of her own nation’s Grand Slam event and Oudin, inset, who is ranked 70th in the world but is surely destined to go far higher than that, possesses both qualities in abundance.
At the All England Club a couple of months ago the diminutive youngster knocked out another former world No 1 in Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic. In the previous round she proved too abrasive for the Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva. Not since the 17-year-old Sharapova out-hit Serena Williams in the Wimbledon ladies’ final five years ago has such a performance grabbed the sport’s imagination.
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After two hours and 58 minutes of commitment that earned a 3-6 6-4 7-5 victory, Oudin said: ‘I just kept fighting and fighting. I was determined I would never give up. My goal before the tournament started was to get into the world’s top 50 and if I keep playing like this, I can get as high as anything.’
Oudin now goes forward to try and register a hat-trick of victories against more statuesque, successful and richer Russians. Nadia Petrova, the 13th seed who Sharapova has beaten three times in recent months, will be waiting with much trepidation before the confrontation for a place in the quarter-finals.