Donna Vekić



Donna Vekić (born 28 June 1996) is a Croatian professional tennis player.

Vekić has won two singles titles on the WTA tour as well as five singles and one doubles title on the ITF circuit in her career. On 24 July 2017, she reached her best singles ranking of world no. 50. On 2 February 2015, she peaked at world no. 310 in the doubles rankings.

Osijek-born Vekić is a member of the Croatia Fed Cup team and in February 2012 played three rubbers at the tournament, including helping her country to a 2–0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2012: First WTA final
At the 2012 Tashkent Open, Vekić made it to her first WTA Tour final, it was her first main draw appearance at a WTA tournament. She was the youngest player in six years to make it to a WTA final. She was, however, defeated by Irina-Camelia Begu in straight sets.

2013: Second WTA final
Vekić started her year off by entering the main draw of the 2013 Australian Open. She defeated Andrea Hlaváčková in the first round 6-1, 6-2. In the 2nd round, Vekić fell to 10th seed and former world number 1, Caroline Wozniacki 6-1, 6-4.

Seeded 16th for qualifying at the 2013 Sony Open Tennis, Vekić qualified for the main draw by defeating Marta Sirotkina and Valeria Savinykh. In the 1st round, she beat fellow qualifier Yulia Putintseva 7-6(4), 6-0. In the 2nd round, Vekić lost to 29th seed Elena Vesnina. At the 2013 Monterrey Open, Vekić defeated Julia Cohen in the 1st round. In the 2nd round, she lost to 7th seed Urszula Radwańska. Vekić won the 50K tournament in Istanbul, Turkey defeating Elizaveta Kulichkova in the final.

2014: First WTA title
The beginning of Vekić's 2014 season started as 2013 had ended, with first round losses in Shenzhen, the Australian Open (in women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles), and at the Pattaya Open. At this point, her last tour win was at the 2013 Tashkent Open.

Vekić was awarded a wild card at the 2014 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, defeating qualifier Olivia Rogowska in the first round before losing in round two to 12th seed Dominika Cibulková. At the Sony Open in Miami, she came through qualifying with wins over Alla Kudryavtseva and Johanna Larsson to face fellow qualifier Kimiko Date-Krumm in round one of the main draw, a match in which the young Croat won in straight sets. In the second round, Vekić faced Svetlana Kuznetsova, beating the Russian 28th seed in straight sets too, before bowing out to Petra Kvitová in round three. At the Monterrey Open in Mexico, Vekić beat Garbiñe Muguruza in the first round in two tie-breaking sets, but lost to Karolína Plíšková in the second round in three sets.

At the 2014 Malaysian Open, Vekić won her first career WTA title and had one of the biggest wins of her career when she defeated the world number 10, Dominika Cibulková in a third set tie-breaker in the final. On her way to the final, she won three of her four matches after losing the first set (against Chan Yung-jan, Kristýna Plíšková and Zhang Shuai).

2015: Fourth WTA final and French Open 3rd round
Vekic started her year as ranked 81. with loss in first round match from Zarina Diyas. Untill Indian Wells she claimed only 1 win that season. On Indian Wells she passed round of 128 with win over Louisa Chirico but lost in 2nd round from Diyas. Continuing bad form in Miami Charleston she dropped her ranking to 177. and entered ITF in Istanbul as 1st seed but lost in QF from 6th seeded Margarita Gasparyan. She lost in 1st round in Marrakech and 2nd round Q for Madrid. In French Open she claimed her first top 40 victory in season over Caroline Garcia and victory over Bojana Jovanovski before bowing out to Ana Ivanovic. After French Open she continued bad form from first half of the season with not qualifaying in Wimbledon or US Open. In Tashkent she made it to the finals with three set wins over Kiki Bertens, Carina Witthoeft and Anna-Lena Friedsam and two set victory over Evgeniya Rodina. She lost in final to Nao Hibino by 6-2 6-2. She ended her season ranked 105.