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AEGON CLASSIC

June 15, 2016

Coco Vandeweghe

Birmingham, England

C. VANDEWEGHE/A. Radwanska

7-5, 4-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions or CoCo.

Q. Your form right now is red hot. How are you feeling about you? You've been playing really well.
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Thank you. Thank you. No, I'm feeling good. I think I've said it before, but I think grass and hard courts definitely accentuates what I do well. I think it cause a big problem of what I do well. My pace, my power, my placement, my serve. I return pretty decently. Causes more havoc for players on grass and hard court than the other surface of clay.

With all those things, I'm going to be pretty difficult opponent.

Q. So far as you're concerned, clay is something you would make an ashtray for a relative?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: There's a always pickles of problems that come up through different swings. The American Hard Court Series, the European Swing, the Asian Swing, there's different obstacles that you have to go through. I just haven't quite figured out the anecdote for the Clay Court Swing.

I've had some good wins. Other times I've had some pretty terrible loses. Even at the French Open this year, I had really heartbreaking loss to Begu. The two matches before were against two really good plays of Venus Williams and Lucie Safarova.

Yeah, I'm losing in the first round, but it's also to top 10 players, top 20 players. It's not like to someone I've never heard of or anything like that.

It's kind of like where's the scale on what's going on. But it's still a problem I'm trying to solve.

Q. Were you already feeling good about your game before you got onto the grass?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I felt good about the process that I was going through. I think the biggest victory that I had that probably made me feel the best was Fed Cup.

We had to go to Australia, and I had a really deciding match against Samantha Stosur on clay that I won in three sets. So I think playing for your country is very special. I think the wins mean more and the loses hurt more.

So I think that's definitely a moment where I was like, Okay, the works, it's going in the right direction, but it's going to come somewhere.

Actually, my first match on the grass, I was really extremely nervous. I was playing a local wildcard, and I never heard of her. You never know what you're going do get with a wildcard. I mean, I've been a wildcard before.

Whether it's someone that crumbles in front of their home, can't perform to their abilities, someone that plays out their mind because they're rising to the occasion, like, Holy cow, I'm finally in the WTAs.

I've played the part in both of those scenarios. I was kind of thinking in the wrong mind frame of, I've had such great results on grass, I've got to do it again, points and seeding for Wimbledon.

Also I was kind of dealing with a major letdown of I didn't make the Olympic team and that was one of my biggest goals. So it was definitely a hard moment for me that I really internalized. I didn't talk to anyone on my team. It was just kind of a disappointing moment for myself, heartbreaking moment for myself.

Q. Whatever has gotten you to this point is clearly working. What do you think the behind that is?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I don't think there's any secret. It's just my game. Like I said, it excels. It excels on grass and hard court.

Q. Obviously, the rain's been a big factor this week. What do you during the rain break?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Today, was a little bit different from yesterday. I didn't come to the courts until it was absolutely necessary when they finally took the covers off --

Q. Was that frustrating in itself?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: The only frustrating part was the poor Internet in at the Crown Plaza because I was trying to stream Game of Thrones, because, I mean, I'm sitting there, like, what am I going to do?

I have two series that I'm watching, Game of Thrones and Black Sails. I couldn't stream either of them because the Internet was just so poor. It was unbelievable.

But besides that the first world problem moment, I went into town and had some Nandos that I've seen on Twitter. Then went and had a coffee. Pretty --

Q. Retail therapy?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: No, but I did see where Nandos was and it was a good mall. I might be hitting up that a little bit later, but I have to win money to be able to spend money. That was kind of my motivation.

But yesterday, I won some money gambling against my coach in Backgammon. So I'm up, I think Â£9.50. We change currency wherever we go, so I'm up Â£9.50.

Q. Taking us back to the tennis --
COCO VANDEWEGHE: My outside life is way more fun.

Q. Yours and Aga's games are completely different. How do you feel that suits you out on court?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: It's been a big puzzle for me. I've lost four times before. Some not even remotely close. Others were a little closer.

But, you know, I think I have a lot of confidence going in. This was her first grass court match, also I think it's like it's my turn. You lose too many times, it's like, Well, it's got to be my turn soon. I didn't think I couldn't beat her. So, for me, it was like, okay, I executed the game plan today.

Q. Because the grass court season is a little longer now, it's poses an interesting problem, you won Den Bosch, if you go deep here, are you down for Eastbourne?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Yes, I'm playing Eastbourne.

Q. Is it a case of, this year, I'll do it all, and next year, if it sort of pays off in the rankings, you're going to have to skip one of those weeks, because that's an awful lot of play?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I actually tapered down my clay court season for this grass court season. I went home after Rome and just flew ion two days before the French. I was actually on the plane with Lindsay Davenport and Justin Gimelstob the commentating crew, so that's how late I was arriving at the French.

I mean, when the problem arises if I'm going to play Eastbourne or not, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. But I have another match to play, hopefully another match to win and doubles as well.

This is differently going to be a full load week for me. Last week I didn't play doubles, but this week I am.

Q. You just mentioned about your heartbreak about the Olympics. When did you hear? What was your initial reaction?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Actually, it was the final cut for rankings was after the French Open. So the whole beginning of this year to French Open, including last year, was where you could gain points. So I'm No. 5 American. I was kind of very close to the other two of Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens, so it was kind of trying to make headwind into the point deficit that I was dealing sometimes in wasn't much, other weeks it was. It was kind of always inching closer to that.

But it's hard to describe what type of feeling I had besides heartbreaking. I mean, to put it in perspective, my goal from the moment I started playing a sport, any sport, was to be an Olympian, because my mom was an Olympian.

It was something that was always watched and always admired in my family, still even me to this day. An Olympic athlete is the creme de la creme of what they do.

So for me, to win a gold medal, to win any medal would be leaps and bounds ahead of Grand Slams, for me, because that always something that I've aspired to.

In October, I went to the Women's Sports Foundation Gala dinner. You're around all these great women athletes. And it's just meeting all these different people from different sports, from X Games to Extreme Sports to just regular run-of-the-mill sports of track, swimming, you name it.

It was just such a wow factor for me to see gold medalists, things like that. Not only that, after the dinner was done, we literally sat down and ate pizza.

I'm chilling, freaking out, like, maybe, I mean, like, just brush off my own shoulder, I might be a little bit more famous, because tennis in a women's sport is the best known sport. If you probably walked up to anyone in the street and said, Name me three women athletes, they'd probably name tennis players. It's just we're the biggest sport to play.

But for me, I was in awe of them, because I was like, I want what you have. So to kind of put that perspective on that was my feeling of what an Olympian is, that's what I was dealing with in the heartbreak moment.

Q. You've already got a title on grass, you've just knocked out the No. 1 seed here and third ranked in the world. You must want Wimbledon to start tomorrow?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I would actually like a little more rest before that. Yesterday, I was saying to my physio and coach, I was, like, Man, my legs feel like cement right now. Literally, I played Sunday, traveled Monday, arrived Monday night, played Tuesday. Went through a little tour through Europe as I arrived. I went from Holland to Copenhagen to here. So I was just -- it just wasn't easy to get here.

I literally warmed up on grass. That was my first practice on this grass. Started playing, then rain delay, then play again. Finally then the rain was done.

It was more just trying to figure out recovery. How am I going to recover from last week to be able to compete and perform the best I can for this week.

Q. Do you find yourself having to adapt to the grass here?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: It's different. It's different every tournament. Even from Birmingham to Eastbourne, it's just different. It's same similar to a hard court. Hard courts are going to be different no matter where you go. Same with the clay court. I mean there are just different groundskeepers, different things happen to the clay or grass or hard.

Q. Is there one grass court that you feel most at home out of the ones you've been to?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Probably Den Bosch. I've won the title twice. I was joking. I was like I'm almost at Federer's status in Holland. They're going to have to name a street after me.

Q. Maybe in a few more years?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Maybe, maybe (smiling).

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