Player Profiles

Maria Sharapova

Season of resurgence after nine-month injury lay-off, dipping out of Top 100 but winning 31 of 40 matches between May and end of season (finished at No.14); withdrew from all singles events from January to April w/right shoulder injury (Australian Open, Paris [Indoors], Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami, Rome, Madrid); played one doubles match, falling 1r at Indian Wells (w/Vesnina); best results in 10 events played upon return were winning 20th Tour singles title at Tokyo [Pan Pacific] (d. No.12 seed Stosur and No.11 seed A.Radwanska en route to final, then won title when No.7 seed Jankovic ret. w/right wrist injury), finishing runner-up at Toronto (d. No.10 seed Petrova, No.7 seed Zvonareva and No.14 seed A.Radwanska en route to final; l. to No.4 seed Dementieva), two SF finishes, at Birmingham (d. No.7 seed Schiavone en route; l. to No.4 seed Li) and Los Angeles (d. No.3 seed Azarenka en route; l. to No.10 seed and eventual champion Pennetta in 3s) and three QF finishes, at Warsaw (as WC, l. to No.8 seed A.Bondarenko), Roland Garros (d. No.11 seed Petrova and No.25 seed Li en route; l. to No.20 seed Cibulkova) and Stanford (d. No.5 seed Petrova en route; l. to No.2 seed V.Williams); only three pre-QF exits, at Wimbledon (as No.24 seed, l. to Dulko in 3s in 2r), US Open (as No.29 seed, l. to Oudin 75 third set in 3r) and Beijing (l. to Peng in 3r); lay-off caused ranking to fall out of Top 100 week of May 18 (No.126; first non-Top 100 ranking since first cracking the elite in 2003), but played first event of comeback that week in Warsaw (rose to No.102 after QF finish there and after Roland Garros returned to Top 100, eventually getting back to No.14; stayed there for November 9 year-end rankings).

 

Melanie Oudin

Oudin, 18,enters to the Cellular South Cup playing the best tennis of her career. A 2009 Wildcard entry into the 2009 Cellular South Cup singles field, Oudin's 2009 singles record is 39-15. After starting 2009 ranked #209, she is currently ranked #49 in the world. At the 2009 U.S. Open, Oudin captured the attention and hearts of tennis fans around the world when she defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, #4 seed Elena Dementieva, #29 seed Maria Sharapova and #13 seed Nadia Petrova before falling to 2009 Cellular South Cup doubles champion (w/V. Azarenka) and singles finalist Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the U.S. Open quarterfinals. Oudin, who was born in and resides in Marietta, Georgia, is coached by Brian de Villiers.

 

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