Newly retired Oudin made everyone a believer

As an unseeded 17-year-old, Melanie Oudin shook up the tennis world with a run to the US Open quarterfinals.

Now at the age of 25, after numerous health setbacks, the American has announced her retirement.

Here’s a look back at some of the career highlights of a player who made everyone watching her “BELIEVE,” famously etched on her sneakers as she made her historic run in 2009 at the year’s final major.

• Oudin’s first taste of Grand Slam success actually came at Wimbledon in 2009. As a qualifier, she reached the round of 16, defeating world No. 6 Jelena Jankovic along the way.

• It was at the US Open in 2009 that Oudin really became a household name. Granted a wild card for the tournament, she defeated four Russian players in a row: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova.

Her run ended at the hands of Caroline Wozniacki, but after the tournament, she cracked the top 50 in the world.

• In 2010, Oudin reached her first career semifinal at the Open GDF Suez in Paris, but wasn’t able to replicate her Grand Slam success, falling in the second round at Wimbledon and the US Open.

She did mark herself as a Fed Cup standout, though, helping to lead the U.S. to the finals against Italy and winning a match in the championship against Francesca Schiavone.

• While Oudin’s singles suffered the following year, she accomplished the biggest feat of her career in mixed doubles at the US Open, where she and fellow American Jack Sock won the tournament over Gisela Dulko and Eduardo Schwank in the final.

• Her singles game rebounded in 2012 as she captured her first career WTA title, winning the Aegon Classic in Birmingham on grass. Oudin’s final-round opponent? None other than Jankovic, whom she defeated on Wimbledon’s grass courts back in 2009. Oudin also picked up three ITF titles that season: one on clay and two on hard courts.

• Over the next few years, injuries and a heart condition severely hampered her efforts to stay on the court. In 2016, she reached her first ITF singles final in two years in Atlanta and captured what would be her final professional title, the doubles at the ITF event in Surbiton, England, on grass.

Though she’s leaving the game behind, the memories of what she accomplished on the court are sure to stay with tennis fans everywhere, especially around the US Open.

Follow Van on Twitter: @Van_Sias