CoCo Vandeweghe beats Ajla Tomljanovic to advance at Birmingham Classic

By Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM: Former top 10 player CoCo Vandeweghe continued her resurgence, rallying to defeat Australian Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 at the Birmingham grass-court tournament.

Tomljanovic had upset top-seeded Elise Mertens in a grueling 3-hour, three-set match on Tuesday that featured three tiebreakers.

She took the first set against Vandeweghe with the help of three double faults by the 29-year-old American.

Vandeweghe used her serve to take control after that, winning 12 of 14 first-service points in the second set, including five of her 10 aces in the match.

In other matches Wednesday, Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic defeated Caroline Garcia of France 6-3, 6-0; Kristina Mladenovic beat Fiona Ferro 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in an all-French matchup; Donna Vekic of Croatia rallied to top Italy’s Camila Giorgi 2-6, 6-3, 6-1; and Heather Watson of England advanced when Shuai Zhang of China retired trailing 5-2 in the first set.

Vandeweghe reached two Grand Slam semifinals in 2017 and twice has been a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon.

She earned her first tour-level, main-draw victory in nearly two years on Monday by beating Kristyna Pliskova in straight sets with the help of 13 aces.

Vandeweghe, who’s been plagued by injuries, last won a WTA match in a tournament main draw in July 2019.

Once ranked as high as No.9, she is currently No.203 and will face No.50 Bouzkova in the quarterfinals.

The Czech was down 1-3 to Garcia in the opening set, then won 11 straight games.