Photos: HOO; Jozo Čabraja / Damir Senčar
Donna Vekić has made history in Croatian tennis by winning the silver medal in Paris, which is the first women’s Olympic medal for Croatia since its independence
The Croatian tennis player Donna Vekić’s career resembles a play from the classical antiquity, which – according to Aristotle’s postulate about the beginning, middle and end – can be read as a great sports story about talent, determination and willpower.
Donna Vekić started playing tennis at the age of six when, taking a tennis racket into her hands, she immediately showed she was enormously gifted. Her dedication and talent culminated in winning Croatia’s junior championship before the age of 15, which was a clear indication of her future professional success.
In 2012, the sixteen-year-old Donna made her debut at the WTA tournament in Tashkent, where she surprised the tennis audience by reaching the finals. This extraordinary success marked her breakthrough onto the world stage. At the age of 17, she won her first WTA in Kuala Lumpur, confirming her status as a talented rising tennis player.
In her first year as a professional tennis player, she broke into the world’s top 100 female players, and by mid-2013, she had reached the 62nd place in the world rankings, becoming the youngest player at that level. Then came a crisis in her results, during which the Croatian tennis player struggled to win several matches in a row.
