Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, who's had a year of big wins, may get the last wildcard. Photo / Getty Images
Her grandmother was a former Miss America, her mother went to two Olympics, her grandfather played basketball for the New York Knicks and her uncle is general manager of the Denver Nuggets. Now Coco Vandeweghe is trying to make a name for herself.
The 21-year-old has been handed a wildcard
to next week's ASB Classic tennis tournament and has been nominated with Christina McHale, also playing in Auckland seeded 7th, as the future of American tennis. Serena and Venus Williams, of course, are the sport's present leaders but Vandeweghe is more than just a difficult name to spell.
She has a big serve - once clocked at 203km/h, not far behind Sabine Lisicki's 210km/h record - and backs that up with a solid net game and aggressive groundstrokes.
She is ranked 97 in the world but was as high as 69 this year after playing in her first WTA final, where she was beaten by Serena Williams.
"I was looking for someone who can offer something different to the tournament and also wanted someone we could build a relationship with and try to get back in the future," said the ASB Classic tournament director, Karl Budge.
