Donna Vekic has become the first player since 2023 to win a WTA event as a lucky loser after battling past home favourite Emma Raducanu in two sets at the HSBC Championships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vekic, who gained entry into the main draw after Marta Kostyuk withdrew with injury, produced a gutsy 6-0, 7-6(5) win over the British No.1, who was seeking her first piece of silverware since the 2021 US Open. It is the first time the 29-year-old has won a WTA 500 event, with her four previous Tour triumphs coming at 250-level tournaments between 2014 and 2023.\u00a0Vekic\u2019s only other triumph on grass was back in 2017 at the Nottingham Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always jealous of the boys playing at this club on this amazing court,\u201d\u00a0the new champion told The BBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe (female players) have had an opportunity to play here since last year. It\u2019s amazing. I love this court. I love the grass and I really enjoyed myself this week.\u201d\u00a0She added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Croat started the match in clinical fashion by winning seven consecutive games as she produced some of her best tennis. However, a Raducanu fightback unfolded in the second set with the Brit carefully working her way to a 5-2 lead before having two set point opportunities at 5-4.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Raducanu, she was unable to capitalise on a critical lead as Vekic worked her way back into the match. The two continued to battle on court with Vekic failing to convert a trio of match points at 6-5. Eventually, she prevailed in the tiebreak after a Raducanu forehand drifted wide on her fourth match point opportunity. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first I was like, \u2018oh no, I won 6-0.\u2019 That\u2019s sometimes a curse in tennis,\u201d Vekic said of her start to the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe (Raducanu) really stepped up. She played some amazing tennis. I was just \u00a0thinking to myself to try to stay with her, make her serve it out, try to make her play every single ball. And I managed to come back.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, her last service game and the time break, it\u2019s all a bit of a blur right now. I\u2019m really happy I managed to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vekic\u2019s triumph occurred as she reunited with coach David Felgate, who oversaw her progression on the grass when she was a teenager.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t even know what grass is if it wasn\u2019t for him,\u201d she said in praise of Felgate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started working together when I was 12 years old. He brought me to Wimbledon for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came to London early last week and we had a couple of days of training. Even though the weather was horrible, I was like, every minute on the grass counts. And we definitely made it count.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Raducanu, there are plenty of positives she can take from Queen\u2019s heading into Wimbledon. Over the past week, she has beaten two top-20 players on the grass \u2013 Sorana Cirstea and Iva Jovic. She is now projected to rise in the rankings to just outside the top 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an incredible week for me making the final here, playing in my home city, my home tournament where I feel the best,\u201d\u00a0Raducanu commented during the trophy presentation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support I have received all week has been incredible. Today was an extremely tough match. Donna played well from the start to the finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both players will be hoping to replicate their strong runs at SW19, where the Wimbledon main draw begins on June 29th. Vekic is a former semi-finalist at the Grand Slam in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my favourite tournament,\u201d\u00a0said Vekic.\u00a0\u201cBut I enjoy playing on the grass. It really smooths my game. Every match on grass is a bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donna Vekic has become the first player since 2023 to win a WTA event as a lucky loser…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-266507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}