Vandeweghe, Barty Fight Back to Win U.S. Open Women’s Title

September 10, 2018 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Vandeweghe_Barty
Photo courtesy of USTA/Darren Carroll

 

American Coco Vandeweghe and Australia’s Ashleigh Barty won their first Grand Slam title as a doubles team by claiming the U.S. Open championship this weekend. The 13th seeded pairing fought back to beat second-seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(6) on Sunday.

“We’ve been talking about this moment,” said Vandeweghe. “For me, personally, I wouldn’t have dreamed this possible at the start of the week, of how I entered into the event, not even close to 100 percent. Even questioning if I was going to play the event.

I definitely didn’t think this was going to be a possibility. I’m so happy to be here now at the end with a trophy.”

The pair saved two championship points in the second set, and saw their break advantage slip away in the deciding third set. The duo was forced to save another championship point in the third-set tiebreak before rallying to win the title.

“Obviously we’ve only played a handful of tournaments together this year, but we’ve had pretty success right the get-go,” added Barty. “This last fortnight has been really fun on and off the court. We’ve been relaxed. We’re very hungry to go as deep as we could. It was really nice to be able to play a pretty clean tournament.”

In the mixed doubles final on Saturday, American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jamie Murray of Great Britain defeated Alicja Rosolska and Nikola Mektic 2-6, 6-3, 11-9 to claim their first title together.

“It was a little emotional getting that win,” said Mattek-Sands, who suffered a horrific knee injury last year. “I thought I did a really good job throughout all the matches, kind of putting that aside and just going out there and playing tennis. I really enjoyed being on the court with Jamie.

I go out there because I love tennis and I love playing. To hold the trophy in the end, it’s amazing.”

 


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
USTA NTC
Century

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