FanHouse Melanie Oudin

REGGIO CALABRIA, Italy (AP) -- Alexa Glatch and Melanie Oudin lost in straight sets Saturday to give Italy a 2-0 lead over the United States in the Fed Cup final.

Glatch lost to Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 6-1, and Francesca Schiavone rallied after a two-hour rain delay to defeat Oudin 7-6 (2), 6-2 on the outdoor red clay court at the Rocco Polimeni club.

"She came out and started playing a lot better and wasn't missing anything when she came back out," Oudin said. "She changed her game a little bit. I did the best I could."

Reverse singles and doubles were scheduled for Sunday in the best-of-five series.

The soon to be No. 1 women's tennis player in the world says she wants to play in the Fed Cup finals against Italy next month. But before she can commit, Serena Williams wants to be sure sure she is healthy enough.

Serena is holding off on making a decision until after the season-ending championships in Qatar.

"I definitely want to play again. I am just trying to get there," Williams said. "It's just really hard to see how my body is going to be after Doha, (Qatar) -- if I am going to be walking or if I am going to be in a wheelchair."

Melanie Oudin's magical run at the U.S. Open is over. Her career as a professional tennis player is just beginning. Her spot as an American celebrity? Well, it's just starting to emerge.

The 17-year-old American from Marietta, Georgia captured the hearts of tennis fans when she knocked off three top-ranked Russians in the U.S. Open, beating Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova before finally losing to another teenager, 19-year-old Caroline Wozniacki, in the quarterfinals.

You would think it would be back to training for the young star. But in the weeks since the conclusion of the Open, Oudin has made a run on a different tour. Her journey on the celebrity circuit has landed her on Conan O'Brien and Ellen DeGeneres, as well as enjoying some time in the spotlight of other professional sports.

Her schedule, and some enjoyable accompanied video, can be found after the jump.

NEW YORK -- We're talking mothers here. Consider it Mother's Day at the U.S. Open, because mothers are in the news here, in the buzz, in the snickering gossip, and also in the results of the women's draw.

One of them, Kim Clijsters, is still in the tournament. A mother hasn't won a major championship since Evonne Goolagong won Wimbledon in 1980. Clijsters will play Serena Williams on Saturday night, weather permitting, in the semifinals. It is a de facto final.

Another mother, Yanina Wickmayer's, died of cancer 10 years ago in Belgium, and Wickmayer took up tennis back then as a means of thinking of things other than her pain. Yanina is in the semis, too, to play Caroline Wozniacki.

And Melanie Oudin lost in the quarterfinals Wednesday. But the third mother, Leslie Oudin, made the news in the most uncomfortable of ways. After Oudin had been portrayed as apple pie, from Mayberry, reports came late Wednesday night that her father had filed for divorce from her mother, claiming the mother had had an affair with Oudin's coach.

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NEW YORK -- Does the word "Believe" scripted on Melanie Oudin's shoes carry any less weight now that she has been knocked out of the U.S. Open? Should she scratch madly at those seven letters, pretend they were conceived out of nothing more than a childish whim?

Of course not, because to do so would suggest Oudin never really possessed the sort of inner faith many of us could only hope to achieve in a lifetime of attempts and failures and do-overs. She is 17 years old, and when Oudin wakes today she'll believe more than ever.

It is the conceit of teenagers to think they can do anything at anytime. They are invincible, indestructible. In the next breath, they are a bundle of angst and insecurities. And teenage girls? Their moods fluctuate as often as the wind. Anyone who has ever been a teenage girl or raised one or been around one when the malls open understands this irrefutable truth: these creatures are usually a broken fingernail away from coming unhinged.

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NEW YORK -- Photographers were fighting, actually fighting, to try to get a photo of Melanie Oudin a few days ago in Times Square, a place that's basically a frantic rush of colors, shapes, people and humanity anyway.

Every aspect of her life has already been analyzed. We know about her boyfriend. She doesn't go to prom because she goes to school online. We know what's written on her shoes: Believe.

She was such a hot ticket in New York Wednesday at the U.S. Open, that people couldn't quite funnel into Arthur Ashe Stadium, the biggest tennis stadium in the world, fast enough.

Things got tense. It was a night match on national TV, and when Oudin lost the first set, ESPN already had a poll up about whether she could come back. Sixty-one percent yes, 39 no.

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MARIETTA, Ga. -- We'll never know. At least, that's what the Oudin twins say, because they claim they don't wish to become the blond-haired version of the Williams sisters for the next generation of tennis enthusiasts.

Well, that's what they claim. They're both 17.

As a result, they'll both likely change their minds during the next few years about boyfriends, girlfriends, hairstyles, clothing, Web sites -- and even about that scenario involving the Williams sisters.

Let's hope the Oudin sisters are as daffy as their peers. If so, they could be a duo for the ages, joining that other one from Compton, Calif.

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Melanie Oudin's magical U.S. Open is over.

Even the comeback kid couldn't overturn this deficit.

Showing signs of shakiness in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, the 17-year-old Oudin got off to a slow start against No. 9-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and never really recovered, losing 6-2, 6-2 Wednesday night.

"This has been a great experience for me. I had a great run here," the 70th-ranked Oudin told the crowd of 23,881 during an on-court interview right after the match, an honor usually reserved for the winner. "I hope to come back next year and do even better."

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NEW YORK -- Melanie Oudin is a blonde white kid from the Deep South who grew up playing a traditional country club sport, idolizing two black women from Compton.

The Oudin phenomenon has hit this past week at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, and her path is mingling with the paths of Venus and Serena Williams, her heroes, at the biggest tennis stadium in the world, named after Arthur Ashe.

If we get the match that we seem headed for, Serena Williams against Oudin Saturday in the final, it could be a monumental moment for tennis, a celebration about cultural and societal advancements.

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NEW YORK -- It takes a little time to break them down, to chop them down. But Melanie Oudin keeps chopping relentlessly. Nadia Petrova was five points from eliminating tennis' newest teen sweetheart/killer from the U.S. Open Monday.

And then: Tim ... berrrr.

Miracle Melanie did it again. No. 13 Petrova fell, and Oudin moved to the quarterfinals, winning 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 at Ashe Stadium.

"If they're going to beat me, they're going to (have to) beat me," Oudin said. "Because I'm not going to go anywhere."

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