Pro athletes have a shelf life, and for Oudin, injuries and a health scare forced her into an early retirement in 2017 at age 25. With an entire life to still live, Oudin thought long and hard about what her next chapter would be. She came back to tennis, this time as a high-performance coach for the USTA.
“I really started falling in love with it, and I’ve been really lucky to be around great coaches,” she proudly proclaims. But when it’s time to work, Oudin transforms into her alter ego, “Coach Mel.”
“Personality wise, yes I’m still known as being bubbly and things like that. But on the court … someone called me ‘rigid’ one time! I’ve been called nitpicky, and I’m definitely strict,” she stated with a glimmer in her eye.
“I’m definitely not one of those coaches that’s going to say, ‘You’re doing great! This is great, you’re playing awesome,’ and telling them what they want to hear. I actually want to help them and tell them, ‘This is how you get there’ … in a positive way, but honest.”
