American head coach Mary Jo Hernandez shook things up on Sunday in Australia as she elected to use Coco Vandeweghe in the first singles match against Australian Sam Stosur. Just like her decision to use Christina McHale against Stosur on Saturday this decision seemed to be a stroke of genius. Stosur won the first set 6-2 and held an early 2-0 lead in set two before Vandeweghe finally started to regain her footing and broke back and evened the set at two each. With the set tied at five and Stosur serving up 40-30 Vandeweghe won the next three points to grab the break and consolidated the break in the next game to force a third set. She’d continue her strong playing winning the first couple points of set three and turning that into a set opening break that would stand through the entire third set. She saved four break points and held on for a 6-4 win and sent the Americans into the World Group next year for the first time since 2014.

With the tie no longer in doubt the second singles match was cancelled but the doubles match still took place between Vandeweghe and Bethanie Mattek-Sands and the Australian team of Daria Gavrilova and Arina Rodionova. The US cruised to a 6-1, 6-4 win and a 4-0 sweep of the tie.

With the World Group spot locked up the US knows they will be taking part in February 2017. It’s a long ways off bu when it comes around it’ll be interesting to see how strong of a squad the US sends. If their very top players can’t go some of the “B Team” who competed this weekend showed they are capable of delivering on a big stage.

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