Coco Vandeweghe Returns With a Win After Long Injury Break at Silicon Valley Classic

Published 07/30/2019, 7:37 AM EDT

Coco Vandeweghe is making a comeback at the ongoing Silicon Valley Classic after missing the tour for almost 10-months due to injury in her right ankle. The American was forced to withdraw from several tournaments including the Australian Open 2019. She also underwent surgery on her ankle to extend her absence from the WTA tour.

Coco Vandeweghe, who accepted the wild card entry at the Silicon Valley Classic returned to winning ways after defeating Marie Bouzkova 6-2, 6-4 in the first round on Monday. The American won her first singles match since June 2018.

🇺🇸 @CoCoVandey is back! 🙌
CoCo Vandeweghe makes a winning return to the singles court, defeating Bouzkova 6-2, 6-4 at the @MubadalaSVC!#TeamUSATennis | #USOpenSeries pic.twitter.com/rY3aSPgdHF
— USTA (@usta) July 30, 2019

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The two time Grand Slam semifinalist hadn’t played a WTA singles match since falling in the first round of the China Open in September 2018. Her 2018 season was affected by a nagging ankle injury that was followed by a foot injury, which dopped her rankings to world No. 636 in the WTA rankings.

The 27-year-old was delighted to be back on court after she was struggling to even walk, five months ago. She said, “It wasn’t easy. To think, five months ago, I wasn’t even walking to be here, playing, in my first match of the year, I’m just full of emotions.”

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While the former world No. 9 missed the first edition of the tournament in San Jose last year, she has been a two-time finalist at the event’s previous incarnation in Stanford. “I love the hard court season and I love the weather that comes along with it. I was bummed to miss the first year here last year, but I’m happy to come out and I’m just happy to compete again,” Vandeweghe said.

“First and foremost, I was thinking of having fun. It was a big-picture sort of scenario, where…I wasn’t walking five months ago,” the American said.

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Coco Vandeweghe suggested that she was trying to have fun and play her natural tennis. “I was trying to have fun, keeping the ball heavy to her, playing my style of tennis, and just trying to execute as best as possible.”

Vandeweghe will meet the second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the second round of the Silicon Valley Classic.

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Starting off as a tennis author in 2018, Varun Khanna has gone on to contribute to EssentiallySports in various capacities. After setting up interviews with the likes of Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Alizé Cornet, and Noah Rubin, Varun is now part of all major ATP and WTA press conferences and has gone on to pen more than 1300 articles for EssentiallySports. He now heads the tennis and NBA division of the organization.