Coco Vandeweghe sweeps aside Roberta Vinci to march into round four

03 July 2016 01:23

American Coco Vandeweghe powered into the fourth round in front of a packed Wimbledon Centre Court crowd on People's Sunday.

The New York-born 24-year-old has a rich family sporting background but is also making a name for herself in her own right, and overwhelmed sixth seed Roberta Vinci 6-3 6-4.

Vandeweghe reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals last year, the furthest she has gone in a grand slam, and is one match away from repeating the feat, with Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in her way.

It was hardly a surprise that Vandeweghe would be a professional athlete. Mother Tauna was an Olympian for the United States at swimming at Montreal in 1976, then in volleyball at Los Angeles in 1984. Grandfather Ernie, who died in 2014, played in the NBA for the New York Knicks.

Measuring in at 6ft 1in and with a strong physique, the 27th seed is a force on the fast grass, bolstered by a serve that ranks as the fourth fastest among women at Wimbledon, behind only Sabine Lisicki and the Williams sisters.

Vinci has defied big serves before, most notably when ending Serena Williams' hopes of the calendar Grand Slam last year in the semi-finals of the US Open, but on this occasion the 33-year-old Italian was outmuscled.

Vandeweghe said: "At times I felt I was in the clouds a bit, making a few loose errors, but overall I was happy with the match. It was quite cool."

The crowd was largely made up of fans who had bought £70 tickets on Saturday after tournament organisers announced play on the tournament's regular rest day.

While previous People's Sundays have seen raucous atmospheres at times, this was a largely typical Wimbledon crowd, although a single cry of "Come on, Chelsea!" early in the first set hinted that some were new to tennis.

A group of unfortunate spectators had been doused before the match began, to the amusement of many others, after a stream of water ran off the retractable roof and on to the crowd.

Pavlyuchenkova also upset the rankings to reach the fourth round. The 21st seed swept through against number 11 Timea Bacsinszky, beating the Swiss 6-3 6-2 on Court One.

Source: PA