U.S. Open semifinalist in 2017, out in the first round in 2018.
That’s par for the course in CoCo Vandeweghe’s frustrating, injury-riddled season.
“I’m already looking for 2019. I could throw 2018 into the garbage can real fast,” said the 24th-seeded Vandeweghe, who was upset Tuesday by Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens, 6-3, 7-6 (3).
“This tournament was a huge question mark for me even if I was going to compete. Three weeks out I was saying ‘No, I’m not even going to compete.’ My first hit [since] Wimbledon was at Cincinnati two days before I played. So it’s been a roller coaster.”
And Tuesday it was definitely heading down. Vandeweghe committed a dozen double-faults and made 35 unforced errors to Flipkens’ 19.
She was out of sync through most of the first set, and eventually had to get both ankles wrapped. After trying to bounce back in the second, she was down 4-2 in the tiebreaker as the crowd on Court 17 started to chant “Here we go Coco, here we go!” on the changeover.
It didn’t help. She sailed a backhand volley just long — called out, and replay confirmed as much — and then on match point hit a desperate running return into the net. Flipkens raised both arms in triumph as Vandeweghe smashed her racket in frustration.
It’s become an increasingly familiar feeling this year. Vandeweghe came into January’s Australian Open ranked ninth in the world and buoyed by her semifinal run in Flushing. But she suffered from the flu and got knocked out in the first round, and she’d been nursing a right ankle injury since Wimbledon.
“I’ve been pain-free for about two weeks now — what do you expect when you only play two weeks pain-free and come into the Grand Slam season?” said Vandeweghe. “This Grand Slam was a huge question for me.
“I had the flu in Australia. There goes one Grand Slam. We’re high-functioning machines and it takes a while to recover and get back to peak performance. … I had a good clay-court season, and then I injured myself in the grass court season, so what do you expect?”