NEW YORK - — NEW YORK - - Melanie Oudin had four chances to seize her U.S. Open quarterfinal match against Caroline Wozniacki on Wednesday night.
In the second set, on consecutive service games by Wozniacki, Oudin had four break-point opportunities, opportunities earned by cleverly aggressive plays, a willingness to try drop shots and take pace off passing shots. But each time Wozniacki narrowed her eyes and recovered.
Because of that composure and also the way she calculated all the correct angles, the ninth-seeded Wozniacki ended the magical run of the 17-year-old Oudin. Wozniacki, a 19-year-old from Denmark, advanced to her first major tournament semifinal with a 6-2, 6-2 win.
Wozniacki will play another unseeded teenager, 19-year-old Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, who blasted her way past yet another unlikely quarterfinalist, 52nd-ranked Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine, 7-5, 6-4. Belgium's Kim Clijsters and second-seeded Serena Williams will play in the other women's semifinal Friday.
It was Oudin's first night match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court and she lost the first three games in only eight minutes while scoring only four points (one on Wozniacki's double fault).
But even though the final result looked overwhelming, the match lasted 1 hour, 28 minutes.
Wozniacki apologized for beating the loudly supported Oudin. "I'm sorry I won against Melanie today but hopefully I won many of you guys' hearts and you'll be cheering for me in my next match," she said. By the reaction, it seems she had.
In the men's competition, fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia reached the semifinals here for the third straight year with his 6-7 (2), 6-1, 7-5, 6-2 over 10th-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain. Djokovic will Saturday against top seed Roger Federer, who defeated 12th-seeded Robin Soderling, 6-0, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (6).
Earlier, there had been a minor upset on the same court. Bob and Mike Bryan, the top-seeded twins from Camarillo, Calif., lost in the men's doubles semifinals to the fourth-seeded team of Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and India's Leander Paes, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6).
Another team of American siblings, Venus and Serena Williams, did win their doubles match. The fourth-seeded Williams sisters beat the 11th-seeded Chinese team of Yan Zi and Zheng Jie, 7-5, 6-4.
Marc Wickmayer, Yanina's father and coach, wiped tears from his eyes after his daughter's win. Yanina's mother died of cancer when she was 9 and Marc, a builder, moved to Florida to help tend to Yanina's passion for tennis.
