Donna Vekic, a 28-year-old Croatian tennis player, has made history by reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon 2024. Vekic defeated qualifier Lulu Sun in a thrilling comeback victory, with a final score of 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. This achievement marks only the second time a Croatian woman has reached the Wimbledon semifinals, matching Mirjana Lucic’s feat from 25 years ago.Vekic’s journey to the semifinals was not without challenges. She admitted to feeling like she was ‘dying out there’ in the first two sets but persevered to secure the win. The unseeded Croatian player will now face either seventh-seeded Jasmine Paolini or 19th-seeded Emma Navarro in the semifinals.In other Wimbledon news, Alexander Zverev has withdrawn from the tournament due to a knee injury. The German player was leading 2-0 in sets against Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals when the injury forced him to retire. Zverev has already set his sights on the next big goal: the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic continues to use perceived crowd disrespect as motivation in his pursuit of another Wimbledon title. The 24-time Grand Slam champion believes that some spectators were booing him during his recent match, and he takes this personally as fuel to push himself to win. Other tennis players, including James Blake and Alicia Molik, have noted that Djokovic effectively uses the crowd’s energy to his advantage.
Key points
- Donna Vekic reaches her first Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon 2024, becoming only the second Croatian woman to do so.
- Alexander Zverev withdraws from Wimbledon due to a knee injury, shifting focus to the 2024 Olympics.
- Novak Djokovic continues to use perceived crowd disrespect as motivation in his Wimbledon campaign.
