Donna Vekic had good success in 2018 after climbing 20 places in the ranking but can she progress further in 2019?
The Croatian reached a final in Washington and ended the year in the top 40 having earned steady progress. However despite her good work, more is expected of Vekic especially as grand slam as she looks to break the top 20 and prove a serious threat.
In Asia Vekic told Sport360 that she is proud of her season and that Wimbledon gave her a lot of confidence, “I feel like I kind of made the next step this year,” the Croatian explained.
“My goal at the beginning of the year was to make second week of a Grand Slam and I did that at Wimbledon and after that that gave me a lot of confidence and I changed a little bit mentally, I believe in myself a lot more.”
The world number 34 beat Sloane Stephens, Caroline Garcia and Johanna Konta to make the semi-finals in Tokyo in September and after finishing the year believes she can beat anyone, “I’m always a person who is very realistic,” Vekic said.
“I don’t think I can beat everyone when I know I don’t have the level. But now I definitely believe I can play well and if I play really well then I can beat everyone because everyone is beating everyone, so why wouldn’t I?”
A lot is expected of the 22 year old and with Naomi Osaka winning the US Open this year, she has every right to believe that she can do the same.
The question is has she got the physicality to hang with the best and go deep consistently at the grand slams. She will look to dominate from the start of the season as she plays her first tournament of the season in Brisbane.
