“It’s crazy how in tennis things can turn so fast,” said Croatia’s Donna Vekic, who is currently on a dream run at SW19. She recently ended Lulu Sun’s fairy tale run at Wimbledon 2024 by defeating her 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. Vekic has now advanced to her maiden Grand Slam semifinal in her 43rd main draw appearance. “Never give up because great things take time”—the 28-year-old Croatian tennis star is a prime example of that phrase now! Her journey has been full of ups and downs, but did you know tennis wasn’t her first love?

Sports run in her blood! She was always destined to be an athlete, but which sport wasn’t decided initially. Her father, Igor Vekic, was a professional soccer player, while her mother, Brankica, was a track hurdler. So, she always got the encouragement to try her hand in the sports world. How was she introduced to tennis, though? Donna Vekic recently appeared on the Tennis Channel Live Podcast, where she spoke about her transition from gymnastics to the racquet sport. “I started out with gymnastics when I was four years old. But not that I was going to go professional into gymnastics, but they were like, ‘Oh, she’s gonna be too tall‘,” said Vekic during the conversation.

She further revealed, “Then I just started playing tennis. And I’m not sure if I fell in love with the sport straight beginning, but I was so competitive, that I wanted to be all the kids that I was playing against.” She never gave up! Now, she has also become the first Croatian woman to reach the SF of Wimbledon since Mirjana Lucic in 1999. What a journey! “I wanted to be the best. So that kind of pushed me in the beginning and I think it’s only recently a bit later in my career that I really fell in love with the game and just started to become obsessed with tennis,” Vekic added.

Donna Vekic revealed that she has a habit of watching her matches whenever she comes back from a tour. Her love for the racquet sport has reached a different level now. However, did you know there was one point in her career when she thought about quitting tennis?

“I didn’t think I was ever going to come back” – Donna Vekic recalls her tough days

She had thought a couple of times about quitting tennis when she struggled to come back after knee surgery in 2021. Recalling those tough moments in her career, Donna Vekic said, “Those couple of years [2021 and 2022] were very tough. I didn’t think I was ever going to come back to the level that I even had last year.“

Vekic is currently ranked 37th in the world and has a win-loss record of 22-14 this season. So far this year, she has had quite a decent performance, reaching one final, one semifinal, and one quarterfinal in her previous tournaments.

However, her recent run at Wimbledon has been pretty special. She was a bit “hurt” after her third-round loss to Olga Danilovic at the French Open; despite putting in the effort, the results seemed to elude her. “It was a very, very tough moment, but [her team] were all there for me,” she revealed. This motivated her to keep pushing harder.

Now, this incredible run at the Wimbledon Championships has become an essential chapter in her career. She’s proud of the way she battled all the waves and sailed through the turbulent sea to reach where she is today!