Vekić advances to the 2nd round of the US Open

Croatia’s top ranked tennis player, Donna Vekić (WTA – 49th) won her first round match against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain 3:6, 7:5, 6:3, on Wednesday. Croatia’s last remaining participant in the singles draws of the final grand slam of the tennis season will play American Coco Gauff on Thursday for a place in the 3rd round.

The key moments in the first set were the fourth and seventh games when both Donna Vekić and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro had the opportunity to break their opponent’s serve. However, Bouzas Maneiro took advantage of her two breaks, while Vekić only converted one. However, Vekić came back strong in a hard fought second set, winning three consecutive games after having already lost her service and levelling the score at one set each. In the third and deciding set Vekić opened by breaking her opponent’s serve, only to lose the advantage in the fourth game. She held strong however, and regaining the advantage in the fifth set. She brought the match to an end by breaking Bouzas' serve yet again in the sixth set for a final score of 6:3.

In the second round, Vekić will play against the tournament’s third seed, American Coco Gauff, who defeated naturalized Australian Ajla Tomljanović from Zagreb, 6:4, 6:7, 7:5, after almost three hours of play. This will be the third meeting between Vekić and Gauff, with their current record at 1-1. Vekić’s win over Gauff came in the round of 16 of last year's Olympic Games in Paris, while Gauff's victory came at the beginning of this year at the United Cup.

Meanwhile, in the men's draw veteran and 2014 US Open winner Marin Čilić made a first round exit after losing to Kazakhstan’s Aleksander Bublik, 6:4, 6:1, 6:4.

Source: HRT