Never in her career had Donna Vekic started the season better than in 2023 and it finally paid off with her first WTA title in two years.
The Croatian started with three triumphs in United Cup, before reaching the quarterfinals at Australian Open. Then, she reached the same stage also in Linz, before moving to Mexico for the 2023 Monterrey Open.
Vekic was close to elimination in the first round, losing the first set to Lesia Tsurenko 2-6. But her opponent then got injured and Vekic started her journey toward the title. Her run ended with a win over the first-seeded Caroline Garcia in the final, in a match that lasted 2 hours and 31 minutes as Vekic won 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Speaking after the triumph, she said:
"It was a crazy match until the end, [Garcia] was playing so well, playing so deep. I was trying to win as many points as I could. It was not easy, but I’m really happy to win."
Now, Vekic has a very positive 14-2 record in 2023 and she will want to keep improving that as she jumped to her 23rd place in the WTA Rankings and she's now very close to 19th place, which is her career-best.
"It’s been a great start of the year for me. If the title didn’t come now, I believe that it would have come soon. So I’ve been playing good tennis, and I just need to keep working hard and hopefully stay healthy, and I’m sure I will keep having good results."
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