New Jersey's McHale upsets Bartoli

The U.S. Open has a new darling, a 19-year-old Jersey girl named Christina McHale who used to make the trip from Englewood Cliffs to the National Tennis Center with her friends in the hope of scoring an autograph from one of her idols. Her collection includes signatures from Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi, but after wins like the upset she pulled off Wednesday, the pen is in McHale's hand now.

McHale knocked off eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France in straight sets, 7-6 (2), 6-2, in a second-round match that marked her third career victory over a world top-10 opponent. Earlier this month in Cincinnati, McHale drilled No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets, so what she did to Bartoli was no fluke.

Comparing the two breakthrough victories, McHale said, "Yeah, [the Wozniacki match] was a good win for me, too, but I think to have it happen here at a Grand Slam is exciting for me."

It's the first time in two years as a professional McHale has advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam event. She'll meet 25th-seeded Maria Kirilenko Friday, and judging by her progress this summer, McHale is starting to figure out this Grand Slam thing.

The turning point for her came at the French Open, where she had a 5-0 lead in the third set of her first-round match against Sara Errani and blew it, 7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-9. Upset with herself for failing to seize her first win in a Grand Slam, McHale responded immediately heading to Rome, where she won a challenger event.

Paris lit her fire. "Winning the challenger in Rome after the French was big," said John McHale, Christina's father. "It was what she needed. She didn't want to sit around and practice with that loss in her mind."

After McHale (seeded 55th) won a first-set tiebreaker against Bartoli and then went up two service breaks in the second for a 3-0 lead, memories of Paris came rushing back when Bartoli cut it to 3-2. "I was like, 'C'mon, Christina, don't let it get back to 3-all.' That was a big game to get it to 4-2 . . . [Paris] was a really, really tough loss for me, but I think it's helped me learn how to close out matches earlier."

McHale went on to break Bartoli for the fifth time at 5-2 and then served out the victory. Bartoli, a 27-year-old veteran ranked ninth in the world, was suitably impressed.

"I felt maybe she was reading my game perfectly," Bartoli said. "I hit it to the corner, and she was there without any problem. I didn't play poorly. She was much better than me. She got so many balls back that I had to play five or six winners to get one point."

McHale was joined in the third round by another American upstart, 21-year-old Irina Falconi, who grew up in the Bronx. Falconi upset 14th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5. "The fact that her and I both have New York [metro area] roots is unbelievable," Falconi said of her friend McHale. "She's a great girl, and I was cheering for her."

Two more wins apiece would put McHale and Falconi head-to-head in the quarters. Now that would be an upset for American tennis.