Melanie Oudin electrified the U.S. Open last year with a run to the quarterfinals marked by third-set comebacks, pink and yellow shoes with "Believe" stitched onto them, and shouts of "C'mon" after yet another point-ending shot.

She was just 17, an American from Marietta, Ga., whose chief weapons were guile and determination. She mowed down four consecutive Russian players, including Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva. Suddenly, her round of 16 appearance at Wimbledon didn't look like such a fluke. And despite her quarterfinal loss to Caroline Wozniacki at the Open, Oudin looked to be on the rise, her prospects as beaming as her smile.

"It was great, something I will remember for the rest of my life," said Oudin this week at the Pilot Pen tournament in New Haven, Conn. "But everyone has one Cinderella story and that was mine."

Then the clock struck midnight.

After the breakout in 2009, Oudin hasn't truly broken through in 2010. While her ranking consistently has been in the top 50, allowing direct entry into all the tournaments rather than the qualifying route she had to take most of last season, she has yet to win that first tournament, has not played well in the three previous Grand Slams, has lost 11 times in the first round and has only won as many as three matches in an event twice. She's 17-20 in singles play this year.

All the expectations of last season's magic have been difficult to live up to.

"It's definitely tough," Oudin said. "This week last year, I had no expectations. Nobody had any for me. There was nothing. No one knew who I really was. This year, I am the one to see at all the U.S. tournaments. The fact that Serena is not playing the U.S. Open now and [neither Serena nor Venus] have played any of the U.S. Open Series tournaments, I've been the top American in the draw. I've had to play a lot of night matches, then come back the next day and play. I've gotten a lot of attention."

She isn't the unknown coming into this Open, and there will be more things outside of tennis that she will have to do in New York. That includes getting 10 inches shorn off her hair, the tresses donated to the Locks of Love organization that collects real hair to be made into wigs for disadvantaged children suffering from medical hair loss.

She's also getting new shoes for this Open, and the word "Believe" is being replaced.

Said Oudin, "You will see that my new word will definitely be helpful."

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