The unseeded Donna Vekic from Croatia has never played in a final at the biggest stage. Only one player stands in her way to achieve the lifelong dream. That is Jasmine Paolini from Italy. The world number 7 reached her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros a month ago, but lost to Swiatek. Of course, Paolini wants another final.
The unseeded Vekic is currently ranked at number 27 in the world. The highest ranking ever for Vekic, was at1 9th spot, five years ago. The 28 year old has defeated Wang, Erika Andreeva, Yastremska, Badosa and Lulu Sun on her way to the semi finals. All matches but one has gone to three sets.
The 28 year old had been playing impressively at Wimbledon 2024. She has only lost one set on her way to the semis. She has won against Sorribes, Minnen, Andreescu, Keys and Navarro. In her prior match vs Navarro she put up a tennis clinic and only lost three games. Before this edition of Wimbledon she had never won a match at the all England lawn tennis club.
At the age of 28 Paolini is having the best season of her career. She is a good doubles player as well and she reached the doubles final at the French Open together with Sara Errani. They lost the final at Roland Garros to Coco Gauff and Erin Routliffe. She has won two WTA titles so far and the latter this year. She defeated Kalinskaya in the final of the WTA 1000 Dubai Championships. Paolini has played 41 matches this season and won 29. She has played 8 matches on grass and won 7 of them. Paolini is up 2-1 in the head two heads and this is the first match on grass between them.
Vekic has won four titles in her career and the first one was 10 years ago (the other’s she won in 2017, 21 & 23). Donna has been around a long time but unfortunately she has been injured a few times. She had a major surgery on her right knee in 2021 and missed five months on the tour. In 2022 she fell out of the top 100. During the 2023 and 24 she’s been taking strides constantly and working her way up through the rankings. Vekic has played 36 matches and won 22 on the WTA tour in 2024. She has won 10 out of the 13 matches she has played on grass.
It’s time for a recap of the predictions being made the past four days. 12 out of the last 17 predictions have been spot on.
Our bet: Vekic total games - Under 11.5. The odds are 2.05
