CoCo Serves Notice in Carlsbad

In a tournament loaded with top players, a popular defending champion, and a young American that took the world by storm last summer at The U.S. Open, it took a qualifier to turn the heads of all involved in the second event of the Olympus U.S. Open Series.

CoCo Vandeweghe entered the Mercury Insurance Open with a WTA ranking just above #200. She had done nothing all year to make tournament officials give her a wildcard into what is basically her hometown event. She did make her way through qualifying into the main draw.

She made the most of her opportunity, first defeating Gisela Dulko and then Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva. A few hardcore tennis fans started taking notice. Now in the qarterfinals with 120 SEWTA ranking points in her pocket she decided to go for broke against Russian veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova. Vandeweghe jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the first set and many more people took notice. This served as a big wake-up call to the hard hitting Russian and she ended up winning the first set 7-5. The young American ran out of gas in the second set losing it 6-2, but gaining a ton of confidence for the rest of the summer.

She also gained a well-deserved wildcard into the Western & Southern event in Cincinnati, and more than likely a wildcard into the U.S. Open to close out the summer hardcourt season. She won the U.S. Open Juniors in 2008. It appears more will be taking notice of the upstart Vandeweghe in New York, a city where her Uncle KiKi Vandeweghe played for and against the hometown Knicks for many years.

Vandewehe is also now working with Tom Gullikson which is going to pay big dividends down the road. The 6-foot-1 teen gives her coach of the past three months, Tom Gullikson, some credit for her run in Carlsbad. "He’s brought a little bit of variety to day-to-day practice," Vandeweghe said.

Her work ethic, coupled with her athletic pedigree and a desire for success will make the tennis world take notice soon, maybe even this summer.