By Erik Gudris | Monday, January 23, 2017
CoCo Vandeweghe delivered yet another sizzling performance in defeating Garbine Muguruza to reach the Australian Open semifinals.
Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
For CoCo Vandeweghe, her trip through the women’s draw is gathering more speed and momentum as she enjoyed yet another breakthrough result.
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The unseeded 25-year-old American backed up her upset win over World No. 1 Angelique Kerber with yet another stunning display of power serving and big hitting. This time against No. 7 seed Garbine Muguruza to reach her first ever major semifinal at the Australian Open.
After the match, Vandeweghe gave a freewheeling post-match interview that included an honest assessment of she got through the tense stages of the opening set against Muguruza.
“I fought through a few break points on her serve, kept the pressure on in the first set, and then she finally cracked. And once I got rolling in the second set it was like a freight train you couldn’t stop it.”
The anticipated quarterfinal between Muguruza and Vandeweghe was expected to be a slugfest from two of the tour’s power hitters. But early in the opening set the match quickly proved to be all about Vandeweghe. While the American’s serving once again proved potent, it was her return game that provided quick dividends.
Muguruza, the reigning French Open champion, immediately faced break points against her in her opening service game. Though she fought them off, she soon faced even more when serving later at 3-all.
Sizzling return winners from Vandeweghe would yield her three more break points. But Vandeweghe couldn’t convert as Muguruza fought on to hold the game. Muguruza however, facing down her eighth break point of the set, surrendered the first service break with a double fault.
From there, Vandeweghe later seized the set 6-4 with another solid serve.
After that, Muguruza ended up becoming something of a bystander in the second set despite her best efforts to wrest control away from Vandweghe.
Vandeweghe broke Muguruza easiliy in the opening game thanks to a pair of booming winners. Muguruza, feeling the pressure of Vandeweghe’s overpowering returns, tossed in her fourth double fault of the match to give her opponent more break points. Vandeweghe with yet another winner soon enjoyed a double break lead for 3-0.
Muguruza could only watch as more winners whizzed by her in the late stage of the set. A focused Vandeweghe soon found herself serving for the semifinals up 5-0.
Vandeweghe fought off a break point with more solid hitting from the baseline. On her first match point, Vandeweghe caused Muguruza to make a final error thus giving the American the convincing 6-4, 6-0 win.
Vandeweghe hit a whopping 31 winners to just 14 from Muguruza.
Next for Vandeweghe is a meeting with No. 13 seed Venus Williams who is contesting her first semifinal Melbourne since reaching the final there in 2003.