Fan favorite Donna Vekic made it to the final four of the Philippine Women’s Open, marking an end to a lengthy drought of semifinal appearances.
Donna Vekic is on fire at the Philippine Women’s Open, and not just in terms of fan support.
The Croatian has reached her first semifinal in the WTA tour since 2024, having faced a lot of early exits in her subsequent tournaments leading up to the Philippines’ first-ever WTA tournament.
Prior to the start of the tournament, Vekic underscored the importance of performing well in the WTA Challenger. And now that she’s already notched three wins in a row, she believes that she’s going in the right direction — especially with the drought-ending win.
[READ: Donna Vekic through to Philippine Women’s semifinals after clipping Lin Zhu]
“Yeah, these matches they mean a lot to me right now,” Vekic told the media after drubbing Zhu Lin in their quarterfinals match on Thursday.
“I haven't been in the semifinals since a long time so you know, to win three matches in a row doesn't matter against who, it's a big thing.”
Vekic had last competed in a WTA Tour semifinal back in Wimbledon 2024, when she faced Jasmine Paolini in what became the longest semifinal match in Wimbledon. Paolini beat Vekic in three sets, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6.
But as she gets deeper and deeper into the Philippine Women’s Open, the Paris Olympics silver medalist is happy to see her play improve day by day.
“I am feeling that I'm playing better and better each day and that's all that matters right now, and to stay healthy so hopefully I can have two more matches that will be amazing,” she said.
Easier said than done
While Vekic does feel good about being in the semifinal, the 29-year-old is hardly happy with ending her stint then and there.
With a bigger goal of returning to her high last year when she achieved a career-best ranking of World No. 17, Vekic hopes to get as many wins as possible — and hopefully become the Philippine Women’s Open’s very first champion.
But standing in her way is an equally determined Tatiana Prosorova, who has already won some very interesting upsets in the past few days, including ousting top-seeded Tatjana Maria in the Round of 16.
After beating another higher ranked opponent in Sofia Costoulas in the quarters, Vekic remains wary of the Russian netter. At the end of the day, results matter more than their rankings, even if there will be a sizeable disparity between the two.
“I mean, you cannot be in the semifinals without playing good tennis so it's going to be a tough match for sure. I don't know a lot about her, we will watch with my coach and make a good plan,” she said.
Vekic and Prozorova open the action on the penultimate day of the Philippine Women’s Open at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center. Matches will start at 3 p.m.
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Luisa Morales is a sports writer with a special interest in promoting women’s sports.
Her coverage highlights include the UAAP, PVL, Southeast Asian Games, and the FIBA World Cup. She also follows Alex Eala, the Philippine women’s national football team, and mixed martial arts.