10 QUESTIONS FOR COCO VANDEWEGHE
Ken Hoffman serves up 10 questions for tennis star CoCo Vandeweghe
Nov 18, 2019, 4:36 pm
Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
This article originally appeared on CultureMap.
Last year, this same week, I interviewed Swiss tennis star Belinda Bencic who was competing in the Oracle Challenge Series at Rice University.
Bencic was coming off a serious injury and her ranking had fallen outside the Top 50. I asked Bencic 10 questions, some serious, some silly, and boom — she had her best year ever on the tennis tour in 2019, winning three tournaments, making her first Grand Slam semifinal, returning to the Top 10 for the first time since 2016 and qualifying for the year-end Women's Tennis Association Finals.
I don't see a coincidence.
So, this week, I sat down with CoCo Vandeweghe, my favorite American player, another former Top 10 star coming off an injury, at the Oracle Challenger Series currently underway at Rice. Vandeweghe's ranking has fallen outside the Top 300. She plays next against Anhelina Kalinina from Ukraine (no quid pro quo here) in third-round action.
Here are 10 questions with CoCo and I totally expect her back in the Top 10 where she belongs in 2020. It won't be a coincidence.
CultureMap: Your grandmother (Colleen Kay Hutchins) was Miss America in 1952. Have you ever thought about wearing her tiara during a U.S. Open match, just to freak out your opponent?
CoCo Vandeweghe: That's a funny story. Her tiara was stolen from an apartment in New York when she was Miss America, right out of a safe. So we don't have her tiara.
They didn't give her a replacement, this was back in the '50s. We kept the trophy, which we gave back to the organization as memorabilia when she passed away (in 2010).
CM: Tennis players have to stay in shape, but what do you dive into on a cheat day?
CV: My birthday is coming up (December 6). I will be having steak, baked potato, asparagus, and chocolate cake. That's my menu for my birthday, and that's a cheat day. I will have butter on the baked potato— the full nine yards. I don't care, calories don't count on your birthday.
Continue on CultureMap to find out if CoCo ever gets genuinely mad at an opponent, and much more.
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Michael Wacha scattered four hits over six innings, Vinnie Pasquantino homered and the Kansas City Royals beat the Houston Astros 2-0 for the second straight night Saturday to run their winning streak to six.
Wacha (1-3) once again received little run support, but the veteran right-hander made the meager production stand up on chilly evening at Kauffman Stadium. He struck out six while walking two and never allowed a runner past second base.
Steven Cruz worked the seventh for Kansas City, his seventh appearance this season without allowing a run. John Schreiber left runners on the corners in the eighth, and Carlos Estévez had a perfect ninth for his seventh save.
Bobby Witt Jr. doubled and scored in the first inning for the Royals, extending his career-best hitting streak to 18 games.
Framber Valdez (1-3) gave up a sacrifice fly to Mark Canha in the first inning and Pasquantino's shot down the right-field line in the fifth. Otherwise, the Astros left-hander kept Kansas City in check, allowing three hits and two walks over eight innings.
Valdez had tossed seven shutout innings against the Royals last August in a 3-2 victory.
The Astros, who have lost five straight at the K, have managed just nine hits while getting shut out over the first two games of the series. They had rolled into Kansas City having won three straight and five of their last six games.
Key moment
Isaac Parades hit a two-out double and Jeremy Peña followed with a single to give Houston runners on the corners in the eighth inning. Schreiber bounced back to strike out Christian Walker with a four-seam fastball to end the threat.
Key stat
The Royals have only scored seven runs in the 32 innings that Wacha has pitched this season.
Up next
RHP Hunter Brown (3-1, 1.16) tries to extend a 24-inning scoreless streak for Houston in the series finale Sunday. LHP Kris Bubic (2-1, 1.45) gets the start for Kansas City after tossing seven shutout innings against the Rockies his last time out.