NEW YORK(SMI-WIRE,09.04.-09.10.17)World ranked#20, Coco Vandeweghe from the US stuns world ranked #1 karolina Pliskova in two sets(7-6(4) 6-3) and  becomes the third American to reach the semi-finals with Keys playing tonight at the Arthur Ashes Stadium in Flushing NY.

A sell-out crowd witnessed the historic win of American CoCo Vandeweghe (ranked#20) finishing victorious over top seeded #1 Karolina Pliskova from Czech Republic in two straight sets and joining three other Americans in the semi-finals rounds that will take place tomorrow at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

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Four American players will compete for the 2017 US Open Women's Tennis Championship Trophy and face each other in semi finals tomorrow at the Ashe

Stadium in Flushing NY. Venus Williams (US ranked#9) vs Sloane Stephens and

Coco Vandeweghe (US ranked#20) will face Madison Keys (US ranked#15) in tomorrow's US Grand Slam semi-finals rounds. 

 

Coco Vandeweghe is an American professional tennis player. Vandeweghe reached a career-high singles ranking of no. 19 on May 15, 2017. She was the Junior US Open champion in 2008. Vandeweghe has also won two WTA titles, both at the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships in Den Bosch. Her other notable achievements in singles are reaching the quarterfinals of both the 2015 and the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and the semifinals of the 2017 Australian Open and the 2017 US Open. Vandeweghe has also reached the finals at both the 2016 Australian Open and 2016 US Open in mixed doubles.

Vandeweghe is known to have one of the strongest serves on the tour. In 2014, she hit 306 aces, third highest on the tour.[5] She plays very aggressively, and likes to take the ball early and on the rise on both sides. Her groundstrokes are heavy and are delivered flat and powerful. Vandeweghe is efficient at the net and enjoys moving forward to avoid extended rallies. Because of her consistent serve, she has a solid mental game. Overall fitness and movement are cited as her weaknesses. Vandeweghe's favorite shot is her forehand down the line, and her preferred surfaces are hard and grass courts. She is currently coached by Pat Cash. 

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Coco Vandeweghe at the post-game press conference and this is what she said after 

defeating world ranked #1 Karolina Pliskova in the US Open Quater-Finals:

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Q. You have had a lot of frustration at this tournament over the years, but here you are in the semi now. What changed?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I'm a pretty positive person, so I don't really look too much at the negatives of my life. I try to move forward as best I can, and I've always done that. I've always been more of a glass half full. I don't really take too much in previous bad experiences. I take more in the positives and learning curve that you can learn from losses; you can learn from wins.

Q. You said you dreamed about being at this stage since when you were 16 and you won it here. Can you elaborate on that a little?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Yes, I think most every junior player that plays tennis dreams of holding the big Grand Slam trophies at the end of a tournament.

I think the dream still holds as far as, you know, I'm still searching for that trophy at the end of the week.

Q. Just watching you at match point and the collapse on the court, emotions are obviously extremely powerful. Knocking off a top seed along the way, No. 1 in the world. Talk about the match and what it means to you to get to the semifinals here.
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Well, I think it's a lot of validated work. I think what really was going through my mind in that moment was I'm a big believer that my grandparents are still with me. It was more just looking up and feeling the love of everything that was going on.

Really happy with how I was able to close out the match in the fashion that I did and in front of the crowd today.

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Q. Certainly three and potentially four American women in there, Venus being one of them. What does that mean to you as an American playing here at the US Open?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Well, like I said on court, Venus last night said it very well that, you know, the younger ones were looking at Lindsay, Jennifer, and Serena and Venus. I think that still holds of, you know, we wanted to be those same players in a later generation or be those. You know, now that we're older, we can put that into words, but we all wanted to be there.

For myself, I mean, it's really nice to have an all-American semi on one side, because for sure there is going to be an American in the final.

But I think it would be even more exciting for you guys to write about if there are two all-American semis.

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Q. After the match, you went over and talked to Pat Cash. What has he been able to bring out or help you over the last couple of months? And how big of a difference has that, working with Cash, helped?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I think the biggest thing is channeling my intensity and tenacity out onto the court and putting it into a singular focus. I think that's probably one of the biggest things he's implemented into my regimen.

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Q. You've played Madison a couple of times this year. Tough matches on hard courts. If Madison is your next opponent, what do you think the outcome would depend on?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I think it depends on me, mostly, because similar to today and the other day against Lucie, Madison is a player that can take control of the points and of the rallies.

I think if I allow her to do that, then she's going to be on the winning side of the coin. Similar to Pliskova today and Lucie the other day.

So I think it's definitely going to depend on me and making sure she's not capable of doing that. But I think the same goes for Kanepi, as well. I think Kanepi is also a big player. She's former top 20. I have played her a couple of times and been blown off the court when I was younger, because, you know, she plays that big.

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Q. What's your personal relationship like with Madison?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: It's good. We have had a few Fed Cups together. We have had times off the court together. So we have a good relationship. I just saw her actually go in the locker room, and I was giving Bethanie a piggyback ride. She was giving me some crap about -- well, mostly Bethanie, giving Bethanie crap.

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Q. I know you have mostly been in California but you have spent some of your formative years in the New York area. Does this tournament, besides just being the US Open, at all have a home feel for you?

COCO VANDEWEGHE: It was the first tournament I ever went to was the US Open. I remember watching James Blake on Ashe. That was the match that I watched. It was so fun and exciting to watch James play. I knew nothing about tennis. I wasn't even playing tennis yet.

As far as who James Blake was, I had no idea. I was just more, like, summertime, you're a kid, you go to the US Open. There I was watching James, and it was really nice and fun and exciting and a great time.

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Q. You still lived here, though?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Yeah.

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Q. Over the years, I feel like you have been the sort of player who's not afraid of engaging the crowd. Do you feel this tournament in particular you've gotten better of feeding off their energy? They have been so behind you over your matches.
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I think that starts from Australia. The Australian crowd was one of the first crowds that really kind of enjoyed my tennis and enjoyed my personality. I had a really great experience at Wimbledon playing Sharapova where I was the underdog, and the Wimbledon crowd really wanted the underdog to, you know, push that match a little bit further than straight sets. Maybe even have the underdog win.

But Australia, they really enjoyed my fight out there on the court, like Aussies do. They love to see passion and fight and fire. I definitely bring that out onto the tennis court.

So when I started to play some Fed Cup matches, the crowd got behind me there, also. The more you get used to it, the better I think you get at channeling what you want the crowd to do for you, whether it's to pump you up, to calm you down, to kind of make you think that, okay, I have been on the other side of this coin. My opponent's definitely feeling the noise, the pressure, the moment of this match.

So I think definitely the New York crowd has stepped up in that fashion for me and really given a big positive push to my tennis this week.

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Q. You were very focused today. Would you say consistency was your biggest asset today?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Yes and no. I think there were moments where I was really tough in the big points, and I think my best asset today was making her continually play on her service games. Whether it was not a great return that just got over the net, I know as a big server it's really annoying when your serve keeps coming back.

I know that's what my main focus was, was just to get it back, not have her have a free point too easily.

So I think that was a big pressure moment for her with me hustling down a serve or hustling down her next ball to make her hit a volley, if possible, or hit another groundstroke.

I think that was more of the pivotal moment today than consistency.

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Q. Who may those favorite tennis players be?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Growing up, my two favorites were Lindsay and Jennifer. Those were my two favorites. When I got more into tennis, Lindsay was still playing, and I love Kim Clijsters. Those were my favorites

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Q. Great divide in the tennis world for the last decade at all. Are you a Federer person or a Nadal person?

COCO VANDEWEGHE: This is going to give me crap but I'm a Federer person.

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Q. Why?

COCO VANDEWEGHE: I think it was more I liked how he played. He was more of an aggressive player, while Nadal, in the early stages of his career, was more of a grinder, grinded opponents down. Similar to like Agassi and Sampras, I liked Sampras more than I liked Agassi, even though Agassi threw in haymakers and was an unbelievable player.

But my game was modeled off of Sampras, at least my serve. So I think I have spent more time watching Sampras than I did Agassi. So I will probably get some crap for that one.