Donna Vekic overcomes odds for Olympic Silver: “I thought in these conditions there was no way I could win a medal"

Donna Vekic admitted that she almost missed the Olympic Games due to physical discomfort after her run at Wimbledon. The 28-year-old became the first Croatian woman to win a medal in Olympic Games tennis.

The world No. 21 seems to have rediscovered her best form this summer, grass-swinging. A few weeks ago she was on the verge of dropping out of the top-50, but has been performing well. She has won 14 of her last 17 matches, including a career-best win over world No. 2 Coco Gauff.

The Croatian reached the final in Bad Homburg just over a month ago, but lost to Russian Diana Shnaider. It was only a prelude to what would be her best performance in a Grand Slam when she reached the semifinals of Wimbledon a couple of weeks later. In a tight match that was defined by details, she ended up losing to Italian Jasmine Paolini in the third-set tie-break.

"After Wimbledon semi-finals I had so much pain everywhere that I was debating going to the Olympics because I thought, okay, in these conditions there’s no way I can win a medal," the world No. 21 said. "I had pain in my arm, pain in my ankle, I was sick."

"Everything was happening all at once. When we came here, first our flight was cancelled, we arrived late. Everything was going wrong. When we had our first practice, I told my coach, I was coughing so bad I couldn’t hit two shots in a row,” Vekic added.

"I was like, Nick, what are we doing here? And I told him this yesterday and I was like, Jesus, one week later we have a medal. So it’s been absolutely incredible, I’ve really given it [my] all. When you play for your country it’s definitely a little bit more special so I’ve completely given it 200 per cent."

The Croatian was a surprise finalist at Paris 2024, eliminating players such as Bianca Andreescu, Coco Gauff and Marta Kostyuk in the final. However, she ended up losing in the final to Zheng Qinwen 2-6, 3-6. "I’m extremely proud and happy to have won a medal for Croatia," Vekic claimed.

“It’s been my lifelong dream and yesterday has been one of the happiest days of my life and of course now I’m a little bit disappointed because I wanted gold but still so happy and so proud."

"I feel pretty good on court. I was really surprised - okay, Wimbledon I play well on grass so that was not so surprising for me,” she commented. "But making the finals on clay, I did not expect that, that’s for sure. Every time I was winning the first couple of rounds, I was telling my coach, I cannot believe the shots that I am making, how well I’m playing. It’s definitely a little bit of a surprise."