Donna Vekic opens up about Zheng Qinwen after Olympic final defeat: “There are a lot of controversial stories about her”

Donna Vekic opened up after losing the Olympic Games final to Zheng Qinwen and the frosty handshake they exchanged. The 21-year-old Chinese player faced criticism from Emma Navarro after the quarterfinals, and now Vekic joins her, mentioning that there are ‘controversial stories’ about Zheng.

The Croatian player has been enjoying a great period in her career over the past few weeks. Vekic reached the final at the Bad Homburg Open, then fell in the Wimbledon semifinals, and on the clay courts of Paris 2024, she won her first Olympic medal.

Vekic’s appearance on the podium was a surprise, as she is not accustomed to having great results on clay courts. In fact, of the 13 finals she had played at the WTA level (4 titles, 9 runner-ups), none had been on clay. This time, at the Stade Roland Garros, she shone with victories over players like Bianca Andreescu, Marta Kostyuk, and Coco Gauff to reach a final on this surface for the first time.

Facing her was Zheng, who had just stunned world No. 1 Iga Swiatek and was the favorite for the gold. Vekic couldn't do much in a final dominated by the Chinese player. After the match, the cold handshake between Zheng and Vekic caught attention, which the Croatian commented on while speaking to the Jutarnji newspaper.

"She was constantly delaying the service, as soon as someone's voice was heard or someone moved in the crowd,” Vekic said. “She took time-outs completely incorrectly. We cannot expect spectators to sit like statues. There are a lot of controversial stories about her, but I won't talk about that now."

Vekic is not the first player to criticize Zheng, following Emma Navarro's comments after losing in the third round to the Chinese player. The American even squandered a match point and after Zheng’s comeback, they had a tense exchange at the end of the match-

"I just told her I didn't respect her as a competitor,” Navarro said. “I think she goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way. It makes for a locker room that doesn't have a lot of camaraderie, so it's tough to face an opponent like that, who I really don't respect.”

After her good weeks in the grass-swing, with a final and semifinalist at Wimbledon, Vekic doubted whether to travel to the Olympic Games due to the physical demands of switching to clay just before the hardcourt swing. The Croatian felt fatigued and also saw it as difficult to win an Olympic medal: "After Wimbledon, I got sick, my arm hurt, my ankle hurt and I didn't feel that I was able to win a medal,” she said.

“Then, due to the canceled flight, we arrived in Paris a day later, during the first training I was coughing and couldn't put two shots together. I said to the coach, 'Nick, what are we doing?' A week later I just told him: 'Nick, we have a medal.' I did my best, when I play for Croatia I give 200 percent," Vekic said.

Despite suffering a disappointing defeat in the final by 2-6, 3-6, Vekic left Paris with a remarkable silver medal: "I am extremely proud and happy to have won a medal for Croatia, I have fulfilled my life's dream. The day I won the semi-final was one of the happiest in my life. Now I'm a little disappointed because I wanted the gold, but Zheng was better. I can't forget or dismiss what I did in these weeks, I'm honest," Vekic added.

"What will I do with the medal? I will sleep with it for six months. Not longer than that, because we will start the new year with new goals," Vekic funnily shared. "I am glad if I could inspire children to start playing tennis. This has been my goal for quite some time since we started building (tennis courts) and built three courts in Osijek (Vekic's hometown). We want to do as much as we can so that as many children as possible play sports," Vekic said.