Everybody loves new American tennis sensation Melanie Oudin — everyone, maybe, except for the Marriott Hotel in Times Square, who kicked the phenom out of the establishment once her one-week reservation was up, a published report said.
Oudin, 17, had apparently not expected to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open and therefore hadn't booked a hotel in New York for long enough to accommodate her sensational showing at the tournament.
Oudin has never advanced this far in a major tournament (she won her first Grand Slam match at Wimbledon this year).
Then, down went Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (ranked 36). Then Elena Dementieva (fourth seed). Then Maria Sharapova (the former world number one). Then Nadia Petrova (13 seed).
So Oudin, whose stay in New York had been elongated, needed a place to hang her racket at the end of the night. The Marriott Hotel made Oudin and her mom leave when their reservation was up, sports reports said.
The Marriott said it was shocked to hear the news of an ousted Oudin.
"We had no knowledge Melanie Oudin was staying at the hotel. There were no guests registered under her name. The hotel was absolutely shocked to receive this media inquiry," a hotel spokesperson said.
According to Sports Business Daily, Oudin’s agent Sam Duvall and manager John Tobias booked her a room at the Intercontinental. Don’t worry, she can afford it now. Tobias also mentioned that none of his clients (including the up-and-coming American male John Isner) will be back at the Marriott any time soon.
Fortunately Oudin found a place to stay, otherwise she might have had to ask Roger Federer if he could spare some room in his $3,075 a night, custom-designed space at the The Carlyle. Of course, then she would have had the crying newborn twins around, and that might not have been terribly restful.
Sports
Oudin has become America’s new tennis sweetheart, she’s captured New York, so having her stay in your hotel is a nice little bit of promotion.
Kurt Helin is a writer based out of Long Beach who has never kicked a tennis player out of his place, and also is the driving force behind the Lakers blog Forum Blue & Gold.
