Can the revamped game of Donna Vekic bounce opponents off the court?
Donna Vekic's entrance into the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco started off on a positive note, bringing her confidence and self-assurance. She had a great resume from her present stint at going deep in Brisbane at the semifinals and then the final at the St. Petersburg Open. Vekic also made it to the final at the 2018 Citi Open coming away with a runner-up berth losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova. She'd changed coaches in November 2017 from Nick Horvat to Angelique Kerber's former coach Tolben Beltz. The German coach said of his happiness at becoming part of the Vekic team that "I am very excited to work with Donna, she has a lot of potential and I am sure we can achieve good results together." Vekic was also happy as she commented upon their collaboration a few years ago that "...I can't wait to start working with Torben Beltz as my new coach...I am eager to do even better...it's a great opportunity to learn from one of the best..." It was that year that Vekic won the Nottingham Open by defeating Johanna Konta.
At the Mexican Open, Vekic went deep into the semifinal of Acapulco, her third of the year and was definitely feeling good. She hadn't lost a set as she's duelled with Misaki Doi, Christina McHale and Johanna Konta winning 6-3, 7-5 over the Brit. Donna Vekic was feeling the magic as she entered the semifinal with Wang Yafan. She was perfecting her ability to either rally the point out, push her opponent back, create the scene to do drop shots or just working on placement. Vekic started the opening set with brilliant strategies of a drop shot and then a lob to win the point over Wang. The Croat's cross-courts were superb pushing Wang out of range and then blasting a forehand into the empty court. She had the determination and skill to win points and won the opening set 6-2 in 30 minutes. It was at break time that Vekic was getting overheated and placed an icepack around her neck as Coach Torben Beltz gave her a pep talk saying "...you're overpowering her...stay on the baseline and go for it..." Vekic shook her head in agreement, took down the icepack and returned to court. But the first few games, she kept to that mindset, cross courting Wang and coming up with winners. What the Croatian didn't plan on was Wang fighting back terribly hard. She had grown more aggressive as Vekic became more passive. They both had the games levelled at 3-all for a while but Wang got tough and before long had won the second set 3-6. Game after game Vekic was out beaten and seen herself in a 1-4 deficit. She'd started to show more spark for a few points but Wang simply reeled off two more games to win the set 6-1. Vekic's lost of the Acapulco semifinal 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 was difficult to take but still left her seething with promise and hope of making another semifinal into a few months of the new season. Vekic's level of play has been raised and consistency should follow her into the next tournament where her chances of being in the final or winning another title are great.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2GUEjiW
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