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WIMBLEDON

July 3, 2016

Coco Vandeweghe

London, England

C. VANDEWEGHE/R. Vinci
6‑3, 6‑4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Your feelings in terms of confidence on grass on that court in particular? If you look from the first ball, you felt like you were going to win?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I don't know. She's a tough player. She's a very crafty player you normally don't play against, let alone the slice backhand. She's got really good feel up around the net. She's definitely not afraid to come in. She constantly tests your nerve, I feel like, kind of gives you a problem to solve. Whether or not you're going to answer it or not is up to the day.
I held my nerve and kept to strategy and game plan.

Q. How happy are you that you've been able to solve this problem? You beat Radwanska on grass earlier this season. Another player that makes you solve a lot of problems. Your game has been steady against those tricky opponents. How satisfying is that?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Yeah, that's kind of accomplishments of just hard work through a tournament, through a season, through a year. Every opponent you face gives you difficulties in a different manner. It's just how you rise to the occasion. Past month or almost two months, I've been doing a good job of rising to the occasion.

Q. You played on Centre Court before. Do you feel any different today because of the middle Sunday atmosphere, energy, crowd?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Yeah, it was really actually quite exciting. When I walked out, the roar of the crowd was, like, crazy. It was super loud. It made me giggle a little bit because it was just surprising.
The first time I went out on the Centre Court this year, it was kind of random, the roof was closed. They just told us, You're going out on the Centre Court next match.
I think it was the buzz of the excitement of People's Sunday was definitely not there. I would equate this more similar to the quarterfinal I had last year of the excitement of the crowd, their excitement for tennis to be played.

Q. What feeling does it give you when you hear people discuss your family history in sports and the accomplishments in your family?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I don't know. I mean, they're just my family. For me it's not anything.

Q. How would you describe what it means to you, what your family has done in sports?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: It's instrumental what they've done in sports, not only on the different arenas that my family has been involved in, but also outside those arenas, behind the scenes.
My grandfather was on the presidential board for the United States health, just like basically physical education for kids.
My mother herself did a lot of stuff with the Women's Sports Foundation.
I definitely take more what they've done off of their own arenas in sports more than what they've done on.
The only trumping factor is now I'll get to be an Olympian, so my mom can't hold that over to me.

Q. What does that mean to you?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: As she says, The only thing I have left over you is I'm taller than you.

Q. Quick turnaround.
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Who do I play?

Q. Pavlyuchenkova.
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I was on the mixed doubles court. I don't look ahead.
The only other time I played her was two years ago or three years ago in Miami. That was a tough three‑setter. She was top 20 in the world at the time, or close to it. I had come through qualifying.
It's going to be a totally different animal. She beat a tough player in Bacsinszky. We'll see what happens when I wake up Monday morning.

Q. The women's success has certainly been there for a while for the U.S. women. With Sam's breakthrough win against Novak and Stevie, just the general success of the U.S. team here on 4th of July weekend, what does it mean to everybody? Are you feeding off of one another?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I think everyone watched Sam beat Djokovic. I think that was monumental not only for the tournament but also for Sam himself. I don't know what it's like to beat a No.1 player, so I can't tell you how the heck he was able to accomplish it.
All kudos to Sam for holding his nerve and being able to do it. I was sitting up in the restaurant watching the whole thing. I think the whole restaurant was, as well.
I think American tennis has always been in the niche of things. I can only speak for the women's side. For the last two, three, four years, there's been a few players kind of knocking on the door of top 20. Madison just made top 10.
I think the whole stigma of U.S. tennis is nonexistent is not relevant anymore.

Q. What do you think the Djokovic defeat does for the psyche of other players, about the door always being open for that sort of achievement from the underdog?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I have no idea what it does for the men's game. The only thing I could see is probably equate it to Serena losing in Grand Slams.
It just means that there's a possibility that they're not invincible, plain and simple.

Q. What do you remember of the Coco who played the final in Fed Cup versus Italy many years ago?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Oh, boy. Goodness.

Q. It was SanDiego.
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I know it was in SanDiego. It was in the Sports Arena.
That was a crazy experience. It was my first Fed Cup tie. The whole feeling of going through everything with the team, doing all the events that you have to do before, pre‑draw ceremony, the clinics you have to do, meet with the different dignitaries of the ITF, USTA, the Italian Federation, that was all new to me. I was 18 years old. I was green. That's for sure.
I tried to do my best. I was kind of thrown to the wolves a little bit, I think. You can't ask for better players than Flavia and Francesca to get thrown against in your first Fed Cup tie. I definitely got it handed to me. I definitely got a little bit, you know, smoked, I would say.

Q. You mentioned not knowing if you'd be ready to beat a No.1. You're getting a lot of support from experts to win the tournament already at this point. Do you feel you could be on the cusp of something big, that it's not too soon for you to do something with how well you've been playing, especially on grass?
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I never really doubted myself the possibility of beating good players, beating players in a big tournament. I've never doubted the capability of doing it.
You have to prove it. You have to prove it and do it in every tournament, or a majority of the tournaments.
I think that's what I've been doing a better job in the last two years of playing, is beating the better players for a majority of the time, not a flash‑in‑the‑pan sort of moment.
That's all I can ask for is to improve and try and become the best tennis player I can be. Whether that equates to winning big tournaments or moving high up in the rankings, whatever that may be, I can only focus on kind of the day‑to‑day process of it all.

Q. Where does your confidence come from? I don't mean necessarily in tennis and on the court, but in general as a person.
COCO VANDEWEGHE: I'm actually not that confident of a person, in general. I don't know. I wouldn't say that I'm, like, an outgoing type of person. I'm very quiet to myself, unless I'm with my friends. When I'm with my friends, I'm a different animal. I do a whole bunch of different things and I'm probably more the instigator than anything.
I don't know. I don't think I have an outwardly confident image of myself, I would say, looking at myself. But I think a lot of other people see it. That's a good thing for me.
My grandmother always said to me, Fake it till you make it. Coming from a Miss America that basically had an ooze confidence, that's a pretty good line.

Q. Do you think growing up in a sporting family is any different than growing up in any other family? Do you think there are certain things you pick up being around athletes or even someone like your grandmother? It's still competition.
COCO VANDEWEGHE: Yeah, no, I've only grown up in one way. You know, my family upbringing definitely wasn't easy. I had a divorced mother. I don't really know my father at all. My grandparents helped raise me.
I think that was really special for me. I mean, I miss them terribly even now. But that was instrumental in definitely my personal growth.
Grandparents are there to spoil you. When my mom would be mad at me or something, I would run to my grandmother and grandfather's room, they always had Oreo cookies. My grandfather loved them and so did I. I'd hide in my grandmother's bed and eat Oreo cookies with her. Stuff like that just doesn't happen in a normal childhood.
From the competitive side of sports, I always had different people. It was always goof around for me. My grandfather would throw something at me when I was doing my homework just to make sure I'm quick and ready, do different things like that.
It was just fun. We grew up in a competitive household. Everything was competitive, from card games, racing to the car first to get to the front seat. Stupid things like that, it was always competitive.

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