Melanie Oudin qualifies for LA Women’s Tennis Championships

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Even though she was a surprise fourth-round finisher at Wimbledon last month and even though she is the hottest young American player on the pro tennis tour, 17-year-old Melanie Oudin had used up her quota of freebie tournament entries called wild card invitations and so she had to play her way into the 56-woman main draw of the L.A. Women’s Tennis Championships which begin Monday.

So that’s what she did.

Oudin beat Melanie Smith of Britain, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. She joined Sunday qualifier winners Jill Craybas (who had been the No. 1-seeded player in the qualifier) and 38-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan as notable winners Sunday.

Also advancing to the main draw by winning Sunday were: Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa; Olga Savchuk of Ukraine; Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands; Carly Gullickson of the U.S.; and Anastasia Rodionova of Russia.

-- Diane Pucin