Back in 2009, Melanie Oudin made a memorable, improbable run to the U.S. Open quarterfinals, making a ton of fans along the way — myself included. Hungry for the next young American male or female player, I was eager to follow her career. Since that breakthrough four years ago, she's not been past the second round of a major.
The situation has been somewhat similar with American Christina McHale. McHale reached the third round of the 2011 U.S. Open, and the next year, she played pretty well in majors and got to the fourth round at Indian Wells. But starting late in 2012, she essentially just stopped winning matches. It seemed like another young American had risen and then quickly fallen, barely to be heard from again.
McHale, as it turned out, had mono last year, and after struggling for a full year, she has finally turned it around. I caught the end of her first-round match in New York last month when she beat Julie Goerges impressively. She nearly beat Ana Ivanovic in the third round, and Ivanovic went on to push runner-up Victoria Azarenka to the limit in the fourth round.
McHale has continued her resurgence in Quebec this week, with a pair of victories. On Wednesday she beat Caroline Garcia in three tough sets, recovering from a first-set loss to pull out a tight second-set tiebreaker. She has a legitimate chance of winning this tournament.
While Sloane Stephens is the undisputed most promising young American, and Madison Keys seems to have a high ceiling, McHale could become a factor again.
No comments:
Post a Comment