More than a full decade after she hit the tour, Donna Vekic is in the midst of her most incredible summer as a professional. The 28-year-old Croat reached her maiden semifinal at Wimbledon in July, in her 43rd Grand Slam appearance, then went on to win the silver medal at the Paris Olympics a few weeks later.
A letdown would be normal, almost expected, but Vekic has hit the ground running at the US Open, reaching the Round of 16 for the first time since 2020 without dropping a single set.
New York can be a pressure cooker for ambitious players, and that stress can sometimes be a prelude to an early exit, but Vekic, who has won 16 of her last 20 matches on tour, is feeling relaxed.
Very relaxed.
After fielding questions from reporters about various topics on Friday evening, including her impending rematch of this year’s Olympic gold-medal match in Paris with China’s Zheng Qinwen, Vekic wanted to change the subject.
“Nobody is going to ask me about my bangs?” she said with a smile. “I just cut them.”
Hard to imagine Vekic saying that as a highly touted teenager, one who was expected to be the next big thing in Croatian tennis. These days, Vekic is comfortable in her skin, a well-heeled, well-rounded player who has experiencedㅡand learned fromㅡthe vicissitudes of the tour.
She’s in the midst of a late-career renaissance that has her living easy and dreaming big.
Bringing an Olympic silver medal home to Croatia has been a life-changing moment for a talent who until this year had trouble maximizing her potential due to injuries. In 2023, Vekic admitted that she was seriously considering retirement following a 2021 knee surgery that caused a plummet in the rankings and a loss of faith in her future prospects.
These days, she’s 100% fit, and eager to see how high she can climb.
“Once you get through the first couple of rounds, everything is possible,” she said.
Working in Vekic’s favor is the fact that her silver medal-winning moment in Paris has taken the pressure off her. She feels she can play loose and free now, and that could make her even more lethal.
“After winning the medal in Paris, I was like, ‘OK, now I feel a lot more relaxed. If I never ever win anything again, it's fine,’” she told reporters on Friday after easing past American Peyton Stearns, 7-5, 6-4, in Stadium 17. “But now, coming to New York, I'm motivated more than ever. Hopefully I can keep playing well, and who knows?”
Vekic’s motivation will be put to the test when she encounters seventh-seeded Zheng in a rematch of the gold-medal match on Sunday in New York. Zheng notched the historic 6-2, 6-3 win on the Parisian clay to further solidify her status as the next Chinese megastar.
Vekic could even the score with the rising Chinese talent on Sunday, and continue pushing up the rankings. Though it was a tough loss at the Olympics, Vekic didn’t take it too hard. She was more thrilled with the silver than upset about not getting gold.
“I was upset for a minute and a half, and I was, like, ‘Wow, I have a silver medal,’” she said. “It's a very different situation that you don't get to experience in any other event.
“Next match is just a fourth-round match. It's not a gold-medal match.”
Whatever the stakes, Vekic is backing herself in her fourth career clash with Zheng, and beyond.
“I think I have more belief in myself now, and that for sure helps in those tough moments,” she said. “Confidence comes with winning, right?”
At a tournament that has had eight different women’s singles champions in the last nine years, five of whom were ranked outside of the Top 10 when crowned, Vekic doesn’t see why she can’t be the one raising the trophy next Saturday night.
“Nowadays, I think everyone has a chance to win. It's just a matter of how you are feeling on the day over the two weeks. It's tough, for sure, to win a Slam. It's the toughest thing ever in tennis, but I do believe I have a chance.”
