By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, January 22, 2017
CoCo Vandeweghe cracked 30 winners crushing world No. 1 Angelique Kerber, 6-2, 6-3, to burst into her first Australian Open quarterfinal.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Tennis is a numbers game where results equal respect.
Clearly, CoCo Vandeweghe doesn’t give a damn about digits.
More: Federer Outduels Nishikori to Reach AO Quarterfinals
In an audacious performance of grip-and-rip tennis, Vandeweghe cracked 30 winners crushing world No. 1 Angelique Kerber, 6-2, 6-3, in a 68-minute dress down.
The 35th-ranked American beat down the defending champion from the start storming into her first career Australian Open quarterfinal.
“It’s really special to play a number one player in the world on any stage in any round,” Vandeweghe told Rennae Stubbs afterward. “I believe it’s my first number one win, so I’ll take that.”
Prior to this week, Vandeweghe had managed just two career match wins in five trips Down Under. Now she’ll face reigning Roland Garros champion Garbine Muguruza with a semifinal spot on the line.
Typecast as a massive talent with a volatile temper capable of rocking the radar gun with 115 mph rockets or decapitating her Yonex racquet in rage—sometimes within the course of the same game—Vandeweghe was sometimes viewed as women’s tennis version of Nick Kyrgios: Immensely gifted and insanely unpredictable.
Facing the ultra-consistent Kerber, Vandeweghe refused to play the waiting game. She teed off on any mid-court ball she saw and basically treated the top-ranked player in the world as if she were a Challenger-level practice partner.
"(When I'm) going out there and playing an opponent, any opponent, I go out there expecting to win," Vandeweghe said. "It's just another person that's in front of me, whoever it may be, if it's No. 1 in the world, No. 130 in the world, it doesn't matter, it's still an opponent to get in my way of achieving my goals."
Showing disdain for Kerber’s most suspect shot—the second serve—Vandeweghe won 11 of 18 points played on the two-time Grand Slam champion’s serve and converted four of six break points.
Throughout the demolition, Vandeweghe looked like the least surprised person in Rod Laver Arena.
Afterward, Vandeweghe conceded outward confidence was a bit of a front.
“I guess I faked it a lot because I was feeling like crap out there,” Vandeweghe said. “Fake it till you make it. You just gotta keep out there and keep playing and hope for the best. My game plan was executire knowing she was gonna get a lot of balls back just keep picking my spots trust my game to beat her and it did today.”
Commanding the center of the court, Vandeweghe forced the counter-puncher to scrape shots out of the corners and hurt Kerber with sharp daggers down the line off both wings.
Serving at 2-3, Kerber saved a pair of break points. Continuing to pound away, Vandeweghe belted a backhand crosscourt converting her third break point for a 4-2 lead. Vandeweghe quickly backed up the break for a 5-2 lead.
Exchanging a nervous glance with coach Torben Beltz, Kerber poked a strained backhand into net as Vandeweghe broke again snatching the 33-minute opening set.
Kerber converted her lone break point of the match when Vandeweghe double-faulted gifting the opening break of the second set, eventually extending the lead to 3-1.
Then Vandeweghe dropped the hammer reeling off five straight games to complete the conquest.
The defending champion was riding a 17-match Grand Slam hard-court winning streak, including a tremendous three-set victory over then top-ranked Serena Williams in the 2016 Australian Open final.
None of that mattered much to the volatile Vandeweghe, who pulverized returns in the second set and often followed them forward. She won 10 of 15 trips to net.
It was as if Kerber, who looked confused by the onslaught, was waiting for her opponent to start missing the mark.
It didn’t happen.
Kerber won just three points on her second serve in the set as her reign came to a close with a wave to the Melbourne faithful.
Meanwhile, if Vandeweghe can continue to temper her titantic power with the controlled variety she showed today—whippin her confounding kick serve that handcuffer Kerber and using the slice backhand to change the pace—she will be a formidable challenge to anyone.
Vandeweghe celebrated this upset spreading her arms and doing a little dab before breaking into a wide grin. She'll try to keep the show rolling against Muguruza in what should be a shotmaking spectacle between two power players.
"It's an interesting matchup because she holds a different aspect to a playing style of she's an aggressor, as well," Vandeweghe said. "She is going to play that way, and no other way.
"For me it depends on if I can match it, as well as if I can beat her to that punch of getting first strike, first play."
Vandeweghe has beaten the seventh-seeded Spaniard in two of their three meetings—both wins on grass including a 2014 Wimbledon thriller—but Muguruza won their most recent meeting in Cincinnati last summer.