Australian Open 2019:- Coco Vandeweghe Becomes the Latest Casualty

Published 01/09/2019, 2:39 AM EST

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Former Australian Open semi-finalist CoCo Vandeweghe has joined the long list of injured players to pull out of Australian Open 2019. As it turned out, an ankle injury forced her to withdraw from the tournament.

The setback comes in the wake of the American dropping to world No. 100 in 2018. In that year, she managed to reach just one final, which was at the Stuttgart Open.

Vandeweghe reached her first Grand Slam semifinal during the 2017 edition of the Australian Open. This in turn, launched her career-best season where she reached a career highest ranking of world No.9.

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via Imago

“Not the start to 2019 that I had hoped for,” Vandeweghe tweeted on Wednesday.

“I have to take care of this injury before getting back out there. Good luck to everyone at the Australian Open!”

The injury has also kept the 27-year-old out of action at the World Tennis Challenge in Adelaide. Former world No. 5 and Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard has been drafted in her stead.

“I am extremely disappointed that I am forced to withdraw from the WTC this year. I was looking forward to arriving in Australia early and preparing for the Australian Open in Adelaide,” Vandeweghe said.

“I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about the event. Last year was a tough year for me recovering and unfortunately I sustained an injury in my prep this off season.

“I want to thank Tennis Australia and the organisers of the WTC for their support and I wish them nothing but the best for this year’s event. I look forward to getting on the court as soon as possible.”

Vandeweghe first picked up the injury when she suffered a first round defeat to Katerina Siniakova at Wimbledon 2018. This injury also kept her out of the ladies doubles with Australian Ashleigh Barty.

The injury blow came after her infamous performance at the Australian Open. Apparently, she lost her cool during her first round match against Timea Babos.

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On that fateful day, she was hit with a code violation for delaying the start of the second set until some bananas were delivered to her.

She was then docked a point and later fined $10,000 for throwing her racquet and swearing at her opponent.

The American slumped to another early singles exit at the US Open later that year. However, she and Barty went on to win their first Grand Slam doubles title.

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In all honesty, missing Australian Open 2019 will be a massive blow for the 27-year old American

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Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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