Sports: The Mirror Match

In an individual sport like tennis, everyone plays the game a little differently. There are dozens of "correct" ways to hit a serve, for instance. Even looking to the larger issues of match tactics and strategy, people have different styles. Serve and volley vs. baseliner, clay court grinder vs. power hitter...all the various shots and movement patterns add up to a pretty idosyncratic package for the average tennis pro.

Every once in awhile, though, you meet a person who plays like you.

That's what happened to Melanie Oudin, the 17 year-old underdog who found herself playing a night match on Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest in tennis. Her opponent was Caroline Wozniacki, a top-10 player. To get to this match, Oudin had defeated four Russians with powerful groundstrokes.

But Wozniacki was different from those Russian women. She is, to put it bluntly, a "pusher." She concentrates mostly on playing great defense, using good movement to recover to a neutral position after hitting a deep, safe groundstroke. Occasionally, she'll use a strong serve or good angle to force an error or hit a winner, but mostly she wins through attrition - frustrating her opponents into making errors.

Oudin has a similar style. To be fair, Oudin's forehand is a pretty good shot that can easily win a point, but her net game and serve aren't good enough for her to reliably end points with pure offense. So she uses her movement (which is indeed world-class) to keep her in rallies, forcing opponents to hit just one more ball. Wednesday night's quarterfinal, in essence, was pusher versus pusher.

It wasn't particularly pretty tennis to watch, especially if you're used to the all-out artistry and athleticism of men's tennis. In the ensuing battle, rallies routinely went into the double-digits, with both women waiting for the other to blink. In the end, Oudin pulled the trigger a little too often, and lost her match with Wozniacki 6-2, 6-2, with literally 2/3 of Wozniacki's points coming from Oudin's errors. Oudin actually hit more winners than Wozniacki, but made far more unforced errors. During the last part of the match, her irritation was visible - wouldn't you be annoyed if someone used your tactics against you?