Vandeweghe advances to Aussie Open mixed final

CoCo Vandeweghe will head into this weekend’s Fed Cup tie against Poland riding high.

The recently named Fed Cupper advanced to her first career professional Grand Slam final Friday, teaming with Romanian Horia Tecau to reach the Australian Open mixed doubles title match with a 6-4, 6-4 semifinal victory over Andreja Klepac and Treat Huey. They will play the fifth-seeded team of Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares in the final on Sunday.

Vandeweghe’s lone previous Grand Slam final came as a junior at the 2008 US Open, where she won the girls’ singles title. As a professional, her best Grand Slam results to date were a quarterfinal showing in singles at 2015 Wimbledon and a semifinal appearance in women’s doubles at the 2015 US Open, partnering with Anna-Lena Groenefeld. She and Groenefeld reached the quarterfinals in women’s doubles this year in Melbourne, falling in three sets to top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza.

The 2016 Australian Open marked the Californian’s first foray into mixed doubles play, but she and Tecau clicked from the start. They upended the No. 6 seeds, Lucie Hradecka and Marcin Matkowski, in the first round, and knocked off the No. 2 seeds, Bob Bryan and Bethanie Mattek-Sands, in the quarterfinals.

Vandeweghe, who entered the Australian Open ranked No. 42 in singles and No. 51 in doubles, next heads to Hawaii, where she will team with Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens and Mattek-Sands as Team USA takes on Poland in the World Group II first round.