Vandeweghe moves on, sets up 1st All-American semifinal in 36 years
It usually started with a few lonesome claps or a silent call to “Come on, CoCo,” but almost always, the smattering of encouragement grew louder and louder in the most critical moments for CoCo Vandeweghe Wednesday afternoon under a closed roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The American returned the favor, fighting off a set point and a tiebreaker on the way to taking down No. 1 Karolina Pliskova 7-6(4), 6-3 in the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
As Pliskova’s final forehand fluttered into the net, Vandeweghe dropped to her knees and the near sellout crowd delivered its biggest roar yet to congratulate the New York native on her first trip to the U.S. Open semifinals.
“I think it’s a lot of validated work,” Vandeweghe said. “I think what really was going through my mind in that moment was I’m a big believer that my grandparents are still with me. It was more just looking up and feeling the love of everything that was going on.”
Vandeweghe’s grandfather Ernie, a former Knicks guard, passed away in 2014.
Joining Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens, Vandeweghe became the third American woman to clinch a spot in the semifinals bfore Madison Keys made it an All-American sweep with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Kaia Kanepi.
Growing up watching Americans such as Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati and Venus and Serena Wil- liams, the 20th-ranked Vandeweghe is now trying to follow in their footsteps.
“We wanted to be those same players in a later generation,” she said.
After Vandeweghe jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the first set, Pliskova pushed her way back into it to go up 5-4 and held advantage with a set point in the 10th game. But with some help from the crowd, Vandeweghe clawed back.
And even after Pliskova came back to win a quick 11th game and was again within reach of a victory, Vandeweghe had an answer by taking the 12th game and then never trailing in the decisive tiebreaker.
“When I started to play some Fed Cup matches, the crowd got behind me there, also,” said Vandeweghe, who recorded five aces. “The more you get used to it, the better I think you get at channeling what you want the crowd to do for you, whether it’s to pump you up, to calm you down, to kind of make you think that, ‘ OK, I have been on the other side of this coin.’ ... So I think, definitely, the New York crowd has stepped up in that fashion for me and really given a big positive push to my tennis this week.”
The loss was a doubly costly one for Pliskova, who also lost her No. 1 ranking to Garbine Muguruza.
“I think [Vandeweghe] can play much worse than she was playing today,” Pliskova said. “Maybe she’s playing [at] home, so she’s a little bit more pumped and not giving those extra few points, which she can really give sometimes.”
Once the 16-year old who won the U.S. Open girls title in 2008, Vandeweghe took one step closer to her ultimate goal.
With her second win this year over the world’s No. 1 player — she beat Angelique Kerber in January — Vandeweghe advanced to her second career Grand Slam semifinal.
“I think most every junior player that plays tennis dreams of holding the big Grand Slam trophies at the end of a tournament,” she said. “I think the dream still holds as far as, I’m still searching for that trophy at the end of the week.” gjoyce@nypost.com