One shouted, “Come on, Melanie!” and a second echoed the encouragement. Nearly all the onlookers began to applaud, trying to will Oudin to another come-from-behind victory.  Oudin served. Mattek-Sands hammered the ball back faster than it arrived. Oudin lost the point, the game and the match, 6-1, 6-4. She signed a few autographs and was on to New Haven. New York was around the bend. It was obvious that the only thing tougher than what Oudin accomplished last year in Queens will be doing it again.  “I joked last year about what the headline of the newspaper would say at this year’s U.S. Open,” Oudin said, her bubbly personality hardly flat after the loss to Mattek-Sands. “And I thought for sure it would be, like, ‘Can Oudin Do It Again?’ Or ‘Can She Do Another Cinderella Story?’ Something like that. I know people are going to expect me to do it again. I did it last year. Why can’t I go all the way this year?”  A more likely result is a first- or second-round exit, if this year is an indication. Oudin began 2010 ranked No. 45. Struggling to nudge her meteor skyward, she was parked at No. 44 when she came to Montreal.  She climbed to 31st after beating three higher-ranked opponents in a row in Paris in February, but she had not beaten one since. In all three Grand Slam events this year, Oudin was expelled by lower-ranked foes — in the first round at the Australian and French Opens, in the second round at Wimbledon.  It has been a learning year, a developmental year, Oudin and her coach, Brian de Villiers, said. They are steadfast in their long-term view. Oudin, who will be 19 on Sept. 23, is still the youngest player in the top 50. Playing a top-tier schedule, she managed to stay there all year.  “That’s not anything to be ashamed about,” Oudin said.  But New York is not known for patience. Attention will be focused on Oudin immediately. Surprise will be replaced by scrutiny.  “It’ll be brutal,” de Villiers said, simultaneously trying to elevate Oudin’s game while protecting her psyche. “I’m a little leery of the circus that I’m sure will be there. Mentally, I’m trying to get her ready for that.”  And if Oudin loses early?  “They’ll knock her and there will be a million guys who will question everything we have done and what she should be doing and what she shouldn’t be doing,” de Villiers said. “But that’s with any sport. You’ve just got to put the blinkers on and keep moving straight ahead.”  At 5 feet 6 inches and 130 pounds, Oudin is one of the smallest players in a growing sea of long-limbed baseline bangers with sizzling serves. To counter, Oudin is trying to build strength and add oomph to her game.  “You can see the way she looks she won’t hurt you with a powerful serve, or she won’t hurt you with the killing shots,” said Vera Zvonareva, a 25-year-old Russian who has beaten Oudin three times this year and reached the Wimbledon final in July. “She will make you play a lot of balls. She’s a good mover on the court. She’s one of those players that make you work to beat her. You have to be ready to spend a lot of hours on the court against her. She’s using her physical ability to her advantage, but she knows that she cannot just overpower you with her shots.”  Zvonareva and Elena Vesnina, who has beaten Oudin twice this year, agreed that there are other players similar in style to Oudin beyond the top 30, but most of the top players are packed with power. “It doesn’t mean that you have to use it all the time, but you’ve got to have it,” Zvonareva said. “It has to be part of your game.”  “This is what I’m trying to explain to her,” he said. “I say, do you know anything about boxing? I explained the heavyweights and the middleweights and flyweights and lightweights. I said, in reality, you’re a lightweight. And you’re fighting heavyweights every single week. You know what’s going to happen in the boxing world if you’re a lightweight fighting heavyweights every week? You might throw a lucky punch once in a blue moon and beat somebody, but you’re going to take your beatings until you bulk up and get stronger.”  Oudin gained experience against top players this year, but early exits left her with a low match count — far different from 2009, when she had to earn her way into most tournaments through a series of qualifiers.  After the Open, Oudin will probably play some lower-tier events where she can work deeper into the draw. At New Haven, Oudin lost in the first round to Dominika Cibulkova. It was the 11th consecutive event, dating to April, in which Oudin had not made it through two rounds. “I just hope people keep remembering that she’s still young, you know?” de Villiers said.  Oudin’s struggles largely reflect how much women’s tennis has changed. Tracy Austin was a slight American teenager who came from the shadows to reach the quarterfinals of the 1977 United States Open. She was 14. A year later, seeded fifth, she reached the quarterfinals again. She won the tournament in 1979.  That era is hardly recognizable through the prism of today’s game. But the underlying issue for Oudin is whether last year was a foreshadowing or a dazzling anomaly.  “That’s where the question is,” said Austin, working as an analyst for the Canadian sports network TSN. “There is still room for improvement. But how high up can she go?”  That will probably not be answered in New York this year. Oudin will arrive to great excitement, buoyed by the memories of accomplishment and burdened by expectation. Her Adidas shoes will be inscribed not with “Believe,” but with another one-word motivator: courage.  “I know what people are going to say,” Oudin said. “I know people are going to expect a lot from me. At least I know that going into it.”  A version of this article appears in print on August 30, 2010, on Page F10 of the New York edition with the headline: Expectations Replace Surprise At Site of Oudin’s Breakthrough. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Melanie Oudin was the darling of the United States Open last year when she beat three seeded Russians in a row before losing in the quarterfinals.