16 year-old Osijek-born Donna Vekić won her first ever Grand Slam match (in her first try) Tuesday afternoon against the Czech Republic’s Andrea Hlaváčková in the first round of the Australian Open. Vekić made quick work of her opponent in the 6-1, 6-2 win, taking both sets in only one hour and 12 minutes. She will now face former world #1 Caroline Wozniacki in the second round of the Aussie Open on Thursday. Wozniacki, currently ranked #10 in the world, looked anything but promising in her opening match vs. Sabine Lisicki, having to come back from a set down to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Vekić is officially on the tennis radar. But does she have it in her at such a young age to take down Wozniacki? And does Croatia finally have something to cheer about in tennis on the women’s side?
In other news around the Aussie Open…
In what was a much tighter match than the score showed, it took Marin Čilić two hours and 22 minutes to defeat Croatian-born Australian Marinko Matosevic 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in straight sets. Čilić will play Rajeev Ram on Thursday in the second round.
Ivan Dodig will join Čilić in the second round after defeating Chinese wild card Wu Di in four sets: 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. He will face 31 year-old Jarkko Nieminen, who beat #19 seed Tommy Haas in five sets. However, the match lasted just under four hours, so Dodig should have a slight physical edge on Nieminen when they play.
Ivo Karlović lost to lucky loser American Tim Smyczek on the first day of the Open in straight sets: 4-6, 6-7, 5-7. On his Twitter feed after the match, Karlović wrote: “Some of you might say I didn’t start the season very good. But I say: First 10 atp points of da year baby!! #glasshalffull #sarcasm #jbg.”
On the ladies side, Petra Martić lost 3-6, 4-6 to Misaki Doi in the first round while Mirjana Lučić was defeated by #17 Lucie Šafářová 6-7, 4-6.
Hi Ziva Istina. I watched her play at the Australian open and she has a great future. Goran is correct about her. Also whats your problem with his choice of women. Secondly his investments in croatia went bad because of all the corruption and crooks in your country. Thats why he lives in Germany he has had enough of Croatia. If thats the way they treat their favourite son what hope is there for the rest of us.
@Kreso, cool, western burbs here, good ol St.albans, junkie town
@Raptore, northern suburbs
@Kreso, what part of Melbourne you reside in ?
Vekic is a very talented palyer. The Aussie commentators love her and said that she will be a top 10 player before she gets to 20 years old.
Kreso – Stop drinking your bourban and watching the tennis.
Come over tonight for a game…
Hot damn!!!
Hopefully her game is as pretty as her looks!
http://gol.dnevnik.hr/clanak/tenis/donna-otpilila-britance-mi-hrvati-borimo-se-za-svoju-zemlju—270523.html
Cilic got pretty lucky yesterday. Matosevic went 0-11 on break points… Couldve been a completely different match
Subasic with a Go Pro:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwghfg_danijel-subasic-vous-donne-rendez-vous-sur-asmtv_sport#.UPWafaFxcnI
Pedobear approves!
Yw
thanks…….my bad on the wrong age bracket
@ Ziva, correction- Konjuh won the U18 and not the U14 as you stated, as a 14 year old (she is born late December). BTW, she also won the Eddie Herr. Ivanisevic said he would be surprised if she and Vekic were not to become top ten players during their respective careers…
Love Goran, know nothing about him since he finished his career, i see him as a legend for many different reasons one being his character, i thought he had a decent ground game wiith that spin but that is just my opinion, you can’t win a grandslam with no class, say what you want about that.
@Kreso……The Orange Bowl is probably the most prestigous juniors tennis tournament in the world outside the juniors events at the four grand slams. And some in the tennis world think it is THE EVENT on the juniors tennis calendar. Ana Konjuh is a 15-yr old from Dubrovnik, who trains in ZG, and she won the Orange Bowl U-14 event in early December. Now, success on the juniors level does not gaurantee success at the senior level. You can look at the year ending rankings for juniors over the last 7 years and not too many of the top junior players (escpecially on the women’s side) end up being at the top of senior game.
Ivanisevic said something that she is going to be a star. Hopefully Goran’s opinion on tennis talent is better than his investment knowledge and choice of women.
@ziva, what did you say about her, what is th orange bowl?
I havenet followed or heard much about Vekic, so I have no idea what will become of her down the road.
But the girl from Dubrovnik looks to be a can’t miss talent. I mentioned her name in early December after she won the Orange Bowl. A few more years at the juniors level and we will see her on the main tour.
Serena has bigger legs than cro cop!
@Elvis, they are brothers as far as iknow.
Womens tennis will contuine to be a dissapointment as long as the she-male Venus sisters are playing.
fuck, i live in Melbourne, not easy seeing the serb flags on the tennis promos all the time, it seems criminal, must have been hard for them to see cro flags since Goran but fukem, they have good players now and i got nothihg against the players.
she doesn’t look half bad in that photo either, hopefully something becomes of her,
Serbs are tottally dominating the tennis game right now, weve been of the pace for a while now..
fuck, even Wozniaki, tennis or not, worth a look!
Vekic and Konjuh are the future of Croatian womens tennis… I think Vekic has a chance against Wozniacki as they are pretty similar in style…
Win or loose i’d watch her!