Donna Vekic lost in the opening round of the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham, but she did fall to a Top 5 player in Elina Svitolina, and remained totally positive with the way she’s playing and the direction in which her tennis is going.
Vekic first talked about the way she battled from a set and a break down to Svitolina; staring at defeat at 1-6 1-3 down, she won five games in a row to turn the match around, but Svitolina–as top players do–pulled through in some key moments in the 3rd set.
“Um, yeah it was a tough match today. I was struggling a bit at the beginning to find some rhythm, yeah, I had a good week last week and I was a little flat out there at the beginning, but I’m happy I managed to get into, win the second set and I think I was just a little bit unlucky at the start of the 3rd set and yeah, I think she played really well for her first match on grass. I think I am improving match by match. I had a couple of tough matches in Nottingham. At the end I was playing better and better but grass is pretty tough on the body so now I am going to rest for a few days and try to have a few more good matches in Eastbourne.”
Even at such a young age of 21, Vekic has seen it all on tour. She was a tennis prodigy breaking through on the tour at 16, making her first final on the WTA tour at the Tashkent Open, and she made another WTA final a year later at the tournament in Birmingham, where she was playing her first ever tour match on grass. The Croatian has seen the unexpected highs at a young age, but also has witnessed the tough times, the testing times that have helped build her into the more mature character she is at present. She discussed that progression and those difficult times moments after her match against Svitolina.
“I don’t think they know how tough it is going to be. It is easy, when you are coming it, it is great, you are playing free, but it just doesn’t go like that for a long time.” I think I was 16 when I was in the Top 100, I was playing so well and then I was 18 when I started go down, so by 20 I’ve experienced the highs, the lows, I’ve experienced everything and that helped me especially last year. I think when you know that at 20, it is a big advantage, but everyone goes through that. It is inevitable.
During the moments of soul-searching, Vekic has also not only worked through growing up at such a young age, but her game has really changed substantially since she first burst on the scene. Known for her ability to generate power with no real worry about the consequences of her groundstrokes, but now year upon year we are seeing the minor adjustments and alterations being made to her game to ensure she becomes more of a complete player, but importantly to give her more tools to work with when her back is against the wall in matches.
“This is going to be my sixth Wimbledon, which I think is pretty crazy for someone who is only 21. I do feel like I have been on tour for a long time. But I feel I’ve developed a lot as a player, when I was younger, it was just aggressive, big serve, but now I defend well and I can go from defensive to aggressive. I think I’m moving a lot better than a few years ago. Even when my Plan A isn’t working, I have a Plan B.I prefer it this way because if you have only that, if you are having a bad day then it is tough, because nothing is working, but I do like to also run sometimes and when I’m not playing so well I know that I always have it.”
Vekic has also won two WTA titles already in her career, the first coming in Kuala Lumpur where she scored that first win over a Top 10 player against Dominika Cibulkova then the next came against British No.1 Johanna Konta in last year’s final in Nottingham, where the Croatian won title No.2. Also on top of the experience of playing big finals at an early age, Vekic has been a regular at the majors now and one of her biggest moments at a major came in the second round of Wimbledon last year, where she lost 7-6 4-6 10-8 to Konta, which was one of the toughest matches of Vekic’s career. To feel defeat after throwing everything into one of the biggest matches of her life and coming up short was tough to take for the talented Croatian, but she took huge positives from the way she competed against a top player.
“I think that was a great match. It was tough to lose that. I had a great time there on Centre Court and hopefully I can have a few more matches there, but that means going far in the tournament, so hopefully I can do that as well. Yeah, it does, since that match I’ve had quite a few close matches with the top players and I feel like I’m there. A little bit missing in the next step to beat them.” I think it is just overall improvement, 5% here, 5% there and hopefully that will get me there and hopefully that’ll be soon.”
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be better. I always expect a lot from myself and I always want to do well and play well but I think i’ve been pretty consistent. Last year was my first consistent year so I’m happy to continue to do that. Hopefully i can keep doing it and improve and go even further in tournaments.”
Vekic is short of where she wants to be, but she is surely showing that she is moving upwards in terms of her level and moving towards a very exciting time in her career as she draws upon the lessons she has learned that has helped form the player that she is today.
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