Advertisement

CoCo Vandeweghe scores big upset at Wimbledon

Coco Vandeweghe of the United States returns a shot against Karolina Pliskova. (Getty Images)
Coco Vandeweghe of the United States returns a shot against Karolina Pliskova. (Getty Images)

CoCo Vandeweghe is on to the third round at Wimbledon after pulling off one of the biggest upsets yet on the women's side. The unseeded 23-year-old American defeated No. 11 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, 7-6, 6-4.

Vandeweghe – the granddaughter of former New York Knick Ernie Vandeweghe, niece of Kiki Vandeweghe, and daughter of former Olympic swimmer Tauna Vendeweghe – also advanced to the third round at this year's Australian Open, the first time she made it beyond the second round at any Grand Slam event.

To best her Australian Open performance, she'll have to get past 2011 U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur, who is the 22nd seed.

Fellow American Madison Keys also won on Wednesday morning, finishing out her first-round match against Stefanie Voegele. The match had been suspended on Tuesday evening due to darkness. Keys won 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, to become the eighth American woman to reach the second round. Keys' 21 aces were the most for any woman in the tournament so far.

No. 4 Maria Sharapova had only one ace, and eight double faults, in her second-round match, but still defeated qualifier Richel Hogenkamp, 6-3, 6-1. Britain's Heather Watson advanced to the third round for the first time since 2012. The hometown favorite, she is the only British woman left in the draw.

On the men's side, No. 1 Novak Djokovic advanced with a straight-set win over Jarkko Nieminen of Finland. Nieminen broke Djokovic in the first game and built a 3-1 lead, but that was as good as it would get for 33-year-old who was playing in his final Wimbledon: Djokovic took the next three games and never looked back, sailing to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 win.

"At the beginning of the match, he came out firing some incredible shots," Djokovic said. "He made I think four winners in the first game, four or five in the second game. He was a break up but I managed to regroup, play some good tennis and get the control on my side."

Djokovic called Nieminen "one of the nicest guys on the court" and said it was "a pleasure to be the last player to play him at Wimbledon." Nieminen plans to retire at the end of the year.

The second match on Centre Court was cancelled Wednesday morning as No. 5 Kei Nishikori withdrew from the tournament. He was scheduled to play Santiago Giraldo. The Japanese star cited an injury to his left calf. He initially tore the muscle two weeks ago and aggravated it again during his first-round win on Monday.

Nishikori's exit likely makes Djokovic's road to the semifinals a lot easier – the two would have met in the quarterfinal had they both advanced to that point.

No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov, No. 16 David Goffin, No. 21 Richard Gasquet, No. 26 Nick Kyrgios, and No. 27 Bernard Tomic all advanced in straight sets.

American John Isner defeated Australia's Matthew Ebden 6-2, 7-6, 6-4. Seeded 17th, Isner has advanced to the third round of Wimbledon last year for the first time. To best his performance this year, he'll need to defeat No. 9 Marin Cilic, who needed five sets to get by Ricardas Berankis.

____________________

Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact her at delliot@yahoo-inc.com or find her on Twitter and Facebook.