US Open Takeaways: #8, CoCo Vandeweghe locomotive

This 17-point roundup is about the men and women who put it all on or inside the lines at the rowdiest major event of the season. The hits started early, and they certainly kept coming.

Check out No. 9 here.

8

The American onslaught in women's singles at this event has been well documented. Leading the way in that: the brash Californian with golden follicles and a smash-mouth serve. CoCo Vandeweghe put the field on watch well before she took out then–No. 1 Karolina Pliskova at the US Open. She had announced her major arrival in January, storming to the Australian Open semifinals before losing to Venus Williams.

Vandeweghe knows how to play the game, obviously, but she plays the media game, the persona game and the social game with nearly equal expertise. She knows who she is, and as *USA Today* put it, she's not apologizing for it.

She's also not afraid to come after a major-sports legend to inquire about a future friendly hit.

Vandeweghe suffered at the end, not coping well with her opponent's sharp hitting in the US Open semifinals, dropping a straight-sets decision to Madison Keys.

That's not how she goes out, though. Vandeweghe left the building with hope for the future and having maintained her inner strength and personality. For the litany of robotic answers doled out in on-court Q&As, press conferences and pre-match yawners on ESPN, the tennis world simply has to be glad to have Vandeweghe.

Take this exchange:

Reporter: "[Karolina Pliskova] said that there are similarities in the speed of your shots, but otherwise, she wouldn’t put you two together, not even personally, and that you go for your shots and even if you miss by five meters, you don’t care, which isn’t her style. What do you make of her characterization of things?"

Vandeweghe: "Of my tennis? I don’t know. I don’t know what five meters means."

When it comes to Vandeweghe, Keys and US champion Sloane Stephens, the future bears the weight of promise and of expectations. Luckily for them, they're in it together. They may be close and they may be foes, but making it to the second week at any Grand Slam will only spur them on, safety-in-numbers style. For all her outspoken habits, keeping that company will only help Vandeweghe.

"When you look at CoCo, Madison, Sloane, you have three exceptional athletes," Chris Evert said during this US Open. "Then you compare them to [Angelique] Kerber and [Agnieszka] Radwanska and [Caroline] Wozniacki, the other Top 10 players, and it's like, these American women should be up there with them because of their athleticism. That's starting to click now."

Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.