Maria Sharapova lost to 17-year-old Melanie Oudin of the United States, falling 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 Saturday in the third round of the US Open. The Russian, winner of the 2006 US Open, gave Oudin plenty of help, finishing with 63 unforced errors and 21 double-faults. Oudin added Saturday's victory to a growing resume that includes a second-round win over fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva at the US open and a victory over former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic at Wimbledon. Her fourth-round match is against 13th-seeded Nadia Petrova. Earlier Roger Federer skidded and fell to the ground before recovering to beat Lleyton Hewitt 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 and extend his US Open winning streak to 37 matches by reaching the fourth round. Federer was serving, ahead 4-2 and 40-love in the first set, when he proceeded to spray shots all over Arthur Ashe Court, losing five straight points on the way towards dropping the first set. He committed 23 unforced errors in the first. Even when he looked to be cruising to the victory in the closing set, up 5-2 and getting ready to serve out the match, he got broken. All that did was extend the match a few more minutes, though it did nothing to quash the notion that Federer was not on top of his game on this day. “You know how good he can play when he's on and you try to take advantage of those small opportunities when they come,” Hewitt said. “You're not going to get a lot, obviously.” Federer is trying to become the first player to win six straight titles in New York since Bill Tilden in the 1920s. His next match will come against either James Blake of the US or Tommy Robredo of Spain. In other matches Saturday, 15th-seeded Radek Stepanek defeated 23rd-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber, eighth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko defeated Marco Chiudinelli and No. 4 Novak Djokovic ended American qualifier Jesse Witten's run to push the top 16 seeded players to 36-0 in the tournament. This is the first time in the 41-year history of the Open era that all top-16 men have advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam. In women's play, 13th-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia beat 21st-seeded Zheng Jie of China 6-4, 6-1. On Friday, Rafael Nadal booked his place in the third round after clinching a 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Nicolas Kiefer. No. 2 Andy Murray defeated Paul Capdeville of Chile 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2. On the women's side, the Williams sisters both advanced in straight sets, as did Kim Clijsters, who set up a fourth-round match with No. 3 Venus Williams.
