Donna Vekić

Donna Vekić (Croatian pronunciation: [ʋěːkitɕ]; born 28 June 1996) is a Croatian professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 17 on 27 January 2025. Her best performance at a major is reaching the semifinals at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, the longest in the history of the tournament, which she lost against Jasmine Paolini. Vekić is also an Olympic silver medalist, in singles at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Vekić has won four singles titles on the WTA Tour – at the 2014 Malaysian Open, at the 2017 Nottingham Open, the 2021 Courmayeur Ladies Open, and the 2023 Monterrey Open. She has also won five titles in singles and one doubles title on the ITF Circuit.

Early life

Vekić was born in Osijek to father Igor and mother Brankica. Her father was a goalkeeper for NK Osijek. She has a brother, Bruno.

She began playing tennis at the age of six, and trained at the IMG Academy from the age of nine.

Career

2012: First WTA Tour final

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

At the Tashkent Open, Vekić made it to her first final on the WTA Tour. It was her first main-draw appearance there, and she was the youngest player in six years to make it to the final of such an event. However, she was defeated by Irina-Camelia Begu in straight sets.

2013: Top 100 debut

Vekić started her year off by entering the main draw of the Australian Open and defeated Andrea Hlaváčková in the first round. In the second, she fell to the tenth seed and former world No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki, in straight sets.

Vekić qualified (seeded 16th) for the main draw of the Miami Open by defeating Marta Sirotkina and Valeria Savinykh. In the first round, she beat fellow qualifier Yulia Putintseva. In the second, she lost to the 29th seed Elena Vesnina. At the Monterrey Open, she defeated Julia Cohen in the first round. In the second round, she lost to seventh seed Urszula Radwańska. Vekić won the $50k tournament in Istanbul, defeating Elizaveta Kulichkova in the final. Vekic ended the 2013 season ranked No. 86, her first top-100 season.

2014: First WTA Tour title

Vekić began 2014 season at the Shenzhen Open where she lost in the first round to third seed Klára Zakopalová. At the Australian Open, she was defeated in the first round by qualifier Lucie Hradecká.

In Thailand at the Pattaya Open, she lost in the first round to top seed Sabine Lisicki. At the Brasil Tennis Cup, Vekić was defeated in the first round by third seed and eventual champion, Klára Zakopalová. In March, she was awarded a wild card for the Indian Wells Open where she lost in the second round to 12th seed Dominika Cibulková. At the Miami Open in Key Biscayne, Vekić came through qualifying with wins over Alla Kudryavtseva and Johanna Larsson. In the main draw, she upset 28th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round. She was defeated in the third round by eighth seed Petra Kvitová. At the Monterrey Open, Vekić beat fifth seed Garbiñe Muguruza in the first round in two tie-breaking sets, but lost to Karolína Plíšková in the second round, in three sets. Seeded seventh at the Malaysian Open, Vekić won her first career title by defeating top seed Dominika Cibulková in the final.

At the Madrid Open, Vekić was defeated in the final round of qualifying by Kristina Mladenovic. At the French Open in Roland-Garros, she lost in the first round to Julia Glushko.

Vekić played one grass-court tournament before Wimbledon, at the Birmingham Classic where she was defeated in the first round by Belinda Bencic. At the Wimbledon Championships, Vekić stunned 21st seed Roberta Vinci in the first round. She lost in the second round to 2010 Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva.

At the İstanbul Cup, Vekić was defeated in the first round by third seed Klára Koukalová. At the Baku Cup, she lost in the second round to Kristina Mladenovic.

Vekić started US Open Series at the Rogers Cup where she was eliminated in the first round of qualifying by Tamira Paszek. At the Cincinnati Open, she lost in the first round of qualifying to Monica Niculescu. At the Connecticut Open, she was defeated in the first round of qualifying by Belinda Bencic. In Flushing Meadows, she lost in the first round to CoCo Vandeweghe.

Seeded fifth at the Tashkent Open, Vekić was defeated in the second round by Urszula Radwańska. At the Korea Open, she lost in the first round to Maria Kirilenko. After qualifying for the first edition of the Wuhan Open, Vekić was defeated in the first round by 16th seed Andrea Petkovic.

2015: Fourth WTA Tour final

Vekić began the year as world No. 81. After a bad start to the new season, she beat Louisa Chirico at Indian Wells but lost in the second round to Zarina Diyas. After her ranking dropped to No. 177, she entered the Lale Cup in Istanbul as the top seed but lost in the quarterfinals to the sixth seed, Margarita Gasparyan. She lost in the first round of the Marrakesh Grand Prix, and in the second round of the Madrid Open.

During the French Open, she claimed her first top-40 victory in the season when she beat Caroline Garcia, and also defeated Bojana Jovanovski before bowing out to Ana Ivanovic. After the French Open, she continued her bad form from the first half of the season by failing to qualify for Wimbledon or the US Open. In Tashkent, she reached the final with three-set wins over Kiki Bertens, Carina Witthöft and Anna-Lena Friedsam and a two-set victory over Evgeniya Rodina, but lost to Nao Hibino. She ended the season ranked No. 105.

2016: Fifth ITF title

Vekić began the season ranked 103. At the Australian Open, she lost in the first round to qualifier Naomi Osaka. She reached the quarterfinals of the San Antonio Open, with wins over Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Kiki Bertens, before losing to Tsvetana Pironkova. She lost in the first round of ten consecutive WTA tournaments from February to August, including the French Open, where she lost to Madison Keys, and Wimbledon, where she took Venus Williams to a first-set tie-break but lost in straight sets.

At Cincinnati in August, Vekić had victories over Varvara Lepchenko and Mariana Duque Marino in qualifying, and defeated world No. 25 Ana Ivanovic, in the first round, before losing to tenth seed Johanna Konta in the second round. She failed to progress through qualifying for the US Open. In September, she reached the final of the ITF Saint Petersburg, with wins over Olga Doroshina, Anastasiya Komardina, Vesna Dolonc and Aryna Sabalenka, before losing the final to Natalia Vikhlyantseva, in straight sets. In Tashkent, she lost in the first round to Kateryna Kozlova. In Tianjin, after her victory over Zhang Kailin, she lost to the second seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In October, at the Soho Square Tournament, she had victories over Laura Pigossi, Jaqueline Cristian (walkover) and Arantxa Rus, before she beat Maria Sakkari in three sets in the semifinals to reach her second ITF final of the year. In the final, she defeated Sara Sorribes Tormo in three sets to win the fifth ITF title of her career. In Poitiers, she lost in the first round to Lauren Davis, while at the Open de Limoges she reached the third round, where she lost in three sets to world No. 24 and top-seed, Caroline Garcia. Vekić ended the season ranked world No. 101.

2017: Second career title

She reached the second round at the Australian Open and then lost to Caroline Wozniacki. Vekić won her second WTA Tour title at the Nottingham Open in June, defeating Johanna Konta in three sets. Two weeks later, in the second round of the Wimbledon Championships, she lost to Konta in three sets, with the final set lasting eighteen games. At the US Open, she reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since the 2015 French Open, easily losing to Anastasija Sevastova. Vekić broke into the top 50 for the first time in July, reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 45 on 25 September, and ended the season ranked No. 56.

2018: Top 50 year-end ranking

At Wimbledon, Vekić reached the fourth round in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career. She upset world No. 4, Sloane Stephens, in the first round, then beat Rebecca Peterson and Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets before losing to eventual semifinalist Julia Görges. Following Wimbledon, she made the final at the Washington Open; however, she lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets, after squandering four match points in the second set. In September, Vekić reached the semifinals in Tokyo by defeating top-10 players Sloane Stephens and Caroline Garcia. She ended the season ranked 34, her first year-end top 50 ranking.