Melanie Oudin won’t have the pleasure of meeting yet another Russian at this US Open, as Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark will be her next opponent, who eliminated the last Russian in the draw, sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal by defeating Kuznetsova 2-6 7-6(5) 7-6(3). Wozniacki converted her third match point, having wasted one at 5-4 and one at 6-5 in the third set.

"I hit too many unforced errors and I couldn't control my emotions. And I wanted it so much, so it was pretty hard to control," world No.6 Kuznetsova said. "All credit to her. But you can't win against anybody with those errors. No chance."

The world No.8 Wozniacki was the highest-ranked player never to have been among the final eight at a Grand Slam. World No.18 Virginie Razzano is that player now. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

World No.70 Melanie Oudin can now be called the slayer of the Russians, as the 17-year-old American hope defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round, fourth seed Elena Dementieva in the second, seed No.29 Maria Sharapova in the third, and now Nadia Petrova in the fourth.

Oudin won just one game in the opening set, but the second was quite a different story. When the 13th-seeded Petrova was serving for a 5-3 lead, Oudin broke back to level at 4-4, and step by step forced a tiebreak which she decisively won 7-2. Oudin then rolled through the deciding set, taking advantage of Petrova’s 22 unforced errors. Final score: 1-6 7-6(2) 6-3.

As the excitement of the past week didn’t catch up with determined Oudin, she’ll be playing her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Oudin’s opponent in the final eight will be either yet another Russian, sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, or ninth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.

In addition, Oudin’s ranking will rise to at least No.45 when the US Open is over. (photo via Life.com)

Former world No.1 Kim Clijsters of Belgium, playing her first major and only her third tournament since returning to the Tour after a two-year-long break, crossed a big obstacle in the form of American third seed Venus Williams to progress to the quarterfinals of the 2009 US Open.

It was a strange match. The 2005 US Open champion Clijsters was winning game by game to unexpectedly bagel Williams in the first set. Then, again unexpectedly, the 2000 and 2001 US Open champion Williams bageled Clijsters in the second set. Such course of events made the third set totally unpredictable. However, in that final set Clijsters made what to proved to be a decisive break in the third game of the set, and even though Williams had two break points to level at 5-5 Clijsters held her serve and won the set 6-4.

Therefore, the final score was 6-0 0-6 6-4.

Clijsters' opponent in the quarterfinals will be No.18 seed Li Na of China, whom she leads 3-1 in career meetings. (photo via Life.com)

Second seed Serena Williams lost just two games against seed No.22 Daniela Hantuchova to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2009 US Open.

The Slovakian world No.24 was a good competitor until 2-2 in the first set, but since then, before you knew it, the American defending US Open champion won the match by winning all the following games.

Nevertheless, Hantuchova has made her best US Open run since a quarterfinal finish as a teenager in 2002.

Serena's next opponent will be the winner of the Flavia Pennetta vs. Vera Zvonareva match. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

America’s third-highest ranked WTA player Melanie Oudin reached the fourth round of a second straight Grand Slam, pulling off a comeback victory over Maria Sharapova, while world No.1 Dinara Safina finally crashed out of the US Open, having survived two close encounters in the first two rounds.

The 17-year-old Oudin, ranked 70th in the world, beat No.29 seed Maria Sharapova 3-6 6-4 7-5. The Russian hit 63 errors, and less than half as much winners, 30.

Let me remind you that in the previous round Oudin ousted fourth seed Elena Dementieva.

In the first round against world No.167 Olivia Rogowska, the top-seeded Safina lost the first-set tiebreak and rallied from a 3-0 down in the deciding set to advance. Against world No.67 Kristina Barrois in the second round Safina also lost the first set tiebreak and was trailing 2-0 in the third set. Finally, Petra Kvitova, ranked No.72, conquered the shaky world No.1 in another nail-biter, even though Safina had held three match points. Final score: 6-4 2-6 7-6(5).

As everyone knows, Safina is yet to win a Grand Slam title, but will remain on top of the rankings regardless of who wins the US Open title. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)