The first question that comes to mind is who is Melaine Oudin? How do you even pronounce her last
name? What’s the origin of it and can someone explain those pink tennis shoes she has on
her feet?
The 17 year old tennis player is one of the stars and storylines of US Open, along with Serena
Williams and Kim Clijsters who is making a glorious return to tennis after her child’s birth.
Some have labeled the young tennis player the next darling of women tennis in the United States and
rightfully so. Oudin is continuing her great performance at the US Open as she will face the Danish
and No. 9 seed Caroline Wozniacki in her quarterfinals match Wednesday night.
Oudin with her pink shoes dismantled the No. 13 seed Nadia Petrova to get to this stage of the
competition. Oudin had initially dropped the first set 6~1, but rallied back to win the second in a tiebreak,
before putting Petrova away 6-3 in the third.
Her game is not the only thing attracting attention at the moment Oudin has a face and a game for TV as
a teenager and those pink shoes have caught the eye of many hardcore fans and casual tennis followers
as well.
She can rock her pink shoes at US Open, unlike say Wimbledon where everyone has to wear white as
part of the court and slam tradition.
This is her first grand slam quarterfinals and those pink shoes [with yellow accents] apparently were
picked out by Oudin as her apparel company Adidas should be salivating at the moment.
But apparently Adidas, before the Open, as usual mentioned that the shoes are in limited edition and
are not available to the public. Maybe it’s a company policy to deprive the public of wearing
the same swag as an athlete, but the apparel company might have to reconsider now that
Oudin’s game is not the only thing drawing massive attention.
Apparently part of the idea for the shoe design was inspired by her 15 year old boyfriend who also was
her hitting partner during her first trip to the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows.
Most tennis players usually have their names on their shoes, athletes from other sports do as well, but
Oudin and her 15 year old BF [that’s accurate, he is only 15 years old] went with the word
“BELIEVE.”
She obviously believes in her talent and one can only expect it will take her far in tennis. Her belief has
also helped in defeating, surprisingly, Russian players in each round of the Open to get this far, from
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and the latest in Petrova.
The American teenager, who skipped homecoming and missed junior prom, started playing tennis at
age seven, is the youngest quarterfinals at the US Open since Serena Williams in 1999.
Oudin did look up to the Williams sisters; Venus and Serena. And while Venus is no longer a contender
for the singles title, Oudin might perhaps play Serena in those pink and yellow shoes that have the word
“BELIEVE” on them at the US Open Final, Saturday night under the bright lights and prime time.
