Donna Vekić revived her game in San Diego at The Barnes Centre at the San Diego Open by playing the kind of tennis that many of her fans over the years know she is capable of playing; where, having entered the tournament as a qualifier ranked 77 in the world rankings, she beat Karolina Plíšková, Maria Sakkari, Aryna Sabalenka, and the surprising one of all was Danielle Collins en route to the final. Vekić has had a bad spell with some injuries which forced her out of the top 100.
In the final she faced the event’s top seed and world number 1 Iga Świątek and the two women played an interesting opening set. After 5 games played in the opening set both players had not yet had a look at breaking serve and neither one had had a game challenged to deuce.
The first break did come soon after though, in the 6th game. It was the Polish player who struck first. She consolidated the break to lead 5-2, leaving Vekić with all to do to remain in the opening set. Vekić served particularly well to hold the following game to keep in touch with Świątek for the scoreboard to read 3-5, a game which delivered the first ace of the match, but Świątek won the opening set by 6 games to 3.
The Croatian’s first opportunity to break the Świątek serve came identically to the opener in the 6th game of the second set after going toe-to-toe again, both players maintaining incredible court coverage.
Vekić had 2 break points at 15-40, and she broke serve dramatically catching the line with a forehand winner. She led 4-2 and the crowd were excited to see whether she would consolidate, and whether the match would eventually be decided by a 3rd decisive set. Świątek began to appear quite frustrated in the ongoing affair. The world number 1 scrambled for returns behind the baseline, making most of them but Vekić consolidated the break of serve for a 5-2 lead after an hour and a half minutes of play.
Both women produced quality tennis in the second set. Both of them served well and read the ball well, but one of the key differences in their game was that Vekić was the more courageous one at net. She stunned Świątek by winning the second set to level the match without dropping a point during that game. She won the second set by 6 games to 3.
Świątek then raised her level a notch when she drew first blood in the all-important 3rd set. Third sets are usually sets she plays with an extra gear. She broke serve and served to consolidate at 2-0, which she did.
She quickly raced to win 5 consecutive games and dug a deep hole for her opponent. Vekić served to stay in the match at 0-5. Her serve completely left at that point as she made devastating costly double faults which saw her lose the match.
Świątek won 6-3 3-6 6-0 to win the San Diego Open. With this run and the amazing performance displayed at this event Vekić will be back inside the top 50. She has a lot of positives to take from the tournament overall. As for Świątek, she recorded an impressive 64th win of the season.
