Vandeweghe reaches first WTA final

Coco Vandeweghe, a Newport Beach resident, has reached her first WTA final, as she will play against Serena Williams in the Bank of the West Classic Sunday in Stanford.

It is the first All-American WTA final on home soil in eight years, according to the Associated Press.

Vandeweghe, 20, reached the final with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory against Belgium’sYanina Wickmayer. Vandeweghe enters the final as a “lucky loser,” as she failed to make it out of qualifying and only got into the main draw when Bojana Jovanovski withdrew with an injury.

“It’s a dream come true for me being in the finals of a WTA event,” Vandeweghe told the AP. “Hopefully this is a good omen for the rest of the summer for me.”

Vandeweghe had never reached a WTA semifinal until she knocked off Urszula Radwanska of Poland, 6-4, 6-4, on Friday.

Williams beat Vandeweghe in a World Team Tennis match that ended in a nine-point tiebreaker at 5-all last summer in their only meeting.

Williams, the recent Wimbledon singles champion, overpowered Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, 6-1, 6-2, in her semifinal.

— From staff reports