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Donna Vekic is about to play the biggest match of her career after reaching the semifinals at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships. The road to this feat has not been easy for the Croat, who nearly quit the sport a couple of years ago.
Donna Vekic has a good track record at the Grand Slams, reaching the quarterfinals twice in her career at the 2019 US Open and 2023 Australian Open. She has now eclipsed those records at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships. However, this would not have been possible if the 28-year-old had not braved the injury curse after her 2019 Australian Open campaign and fought off the yearning to throw in the towel.
Vekic underwent surgery after a fourth-round finish at the 2019 Australian Open due to a knee injury. The recovery kept her on the sidelines for three months, but she returned to action at the French Open. Unfortunately, the level at which the Croat played in Melbourne was gone, and she struggled to keep up with the rigors of the tour.
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After the 2019 Australian Open, she did not progress past the second round of a Grand Slam and flirted with the thought of quitting tennis altogether after being unable to get results on the court. All that changed at the 2021 Courmayeur Ladies Open in Italy, where she won her first tour title in over four years, and the 2022 San Diego Open, where she beat several top-10 players to reach the final.
Vekic carried that form into the 2023 Australian Open, defeating Oksana Selekhmeteva, Liudmila Samsonova, Nuria Parrizas-Dias and Linda Frudhvirtova to once again reach a Major quarterfinal. During her run at Melbourne, while speaking to the media, the 28-year-old recalled her struggles after knee surgery a couple of years earlier and how she recovered from the mental block it entailed.
"I said twice I'm going to quit tennis. But after saying that, one, I won Courmayeur, then I played really well in San Diego. You have doubts, especially because I wasn't really fit. I was so far from moving the way I was before. I didn't trust my knee; I didn't trust my abilities," Vekic said.
She won her fourth tour-level title at the WTA 250 Monterrey Open a few months after the Australian Open quarterfinal, and now it has all come together for her in London.
Donna Vekic to face Jasmine Paolini in Wimbledon SF
Donna Vekic came to the 2024 Wimbledon Championships after a runner-up finish at the WTA 500 Bad Homburg Open. She began her campaign in London against World No. 54 Wang Xiyu and came back a set down to emerge victorious 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Then in the second round, she registered a comfortable 6-2, 6-3 against lucky loser Erika Andreeva.
Vekic's job at Wimbledon got tougher from there, as she needed three sets to beat No. 28 seed Dayana Yastremska 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 6-1, Paula Badosa 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 and qualifier Lulu Sun 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 to reach her maiden Grand Slam semifinal.
She will now be up against No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini for a berth in the final of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
Donna Vekic is set to return to the top 20 of the WTA Ranking after her run at SW19. She will earn at least 650 points from the semifinal appearance and jump from World No. 37 to World No. 20.
