Donna Vekic: Controversy & Boyfriend [2023 Update]

Donna Vekic is a Croatian professional tennis player and businesswoman. She is one of the most admired tennis players around the world.

Vekic is best known for her incredible performance in the 2019 US Open and the 2023 Australian Open at a major singles event.

Donna stands at No. 31 in the world ranking as of 2023.

Her promising tennis career has morphed into an exciting journey of name and fame—all thanks to her hard work, dedication, and outstanding playing style.

The tennis star has won three singles titles on the WTA Tour and made it to the Top 20 in the WTA Rankings in 2019.

Making a prolific image in the tennis world from a very young age. Vekic’s tennis journey has inspired many people that dream of achieving greatness on the court. 

In this article, we will discuss her tennis journey from her early career to her professional career.

Likewise, we will also discuss her age, height, family, net worth, personal life, and many more. So please keep reading and stick with us till the end.

Let’s begin with some quick facts!

Quick Facts

Early Life, Education, & Parents

Donna Vekic was born in Osijek, Croatia, to parents Igor Vekic and Brankica Vekic. Both her parents were athletes and used to be very active in sports.

Her father, Igor, used to play football and was part of a large football family in their hometown in Croatia. Likewise, her mother, Barnkica, was an athlete running in 100m-400m hurdles. 

Besides her parents, she grew up with her younger brother Bruno Vekic, a football player and an aspiring pilot. 

Coming from a sporting family, Vekic dreamt of becoming a gymnast when she was young and was already an extraordinarily active gymnast at the early age of six.

But eventually, she took up tennis and fell in love with the sport. Donna said in one of her interviews,

“I first started playing tennis when I was six years old. Before that, I did gymnastics for two years, and I enjoyed that. But they said that was going to be too tall.”

“I guess they were right. At my first tennis practice, I sprained my ankle, and it was super painful, but I came back the next day because I enjoyed playing it.”

Apart from this, she has not disclosed her education details in the media. 

Age & Body Measurement

Young and talented, Donna was born on 28 June 1996, which makes her 27 years old as of 2023.

Being a June born, her sun sign falls under Cancer. And from what we know, they are hard-working, brave, and honest at the same time. 

She stands at a modest height of 1.79 meters and weighs around 141 lb. Being an athlete, Donna takes good care of her body and does several workouts and exercises to maintain her physique.

Also, Donna looks gorgeous with her lustrous long blonde hair and shining brown eyes.

Professional Career

Donna made a big splash early with her big serve and booming groundstrokes. Firstly, she played three rubbers at a tournament, including a win at Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The year 2012 had so much in store for her. It was the start of Donna’s professional career, as she succeeded in reaching the final of the WTA main draw at Tashkent.

She was the youngest player to reach a WTA final at sixteen but lost to Irina-Camelia Begu in straight sets.

Similarly, the 2013 season started with Donna’s participation in the Australian Open, where she defeated Andrea Hlavackova in the first round.

But in the second round, she fell to the former world No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki, in straight sets.

Moreover, in the Monterrey Open, Donna defeated Julia Cohen in the first round but later lost to seventh seed Urszula Radwanska in the second round.

She won the 50K tournament in the Istanbul finale after defeating Elizaveta Kulichkova. 

Chasing The Championship

Donna started her 2014 season by entering Shenzhen Open, losing in the first round to third seed Klara Zakopalova.

However, she won her first WTA title at the Malaysian Open by defeating top seed Dominika Cibulkova in the final.

Sadly, after that, a slew of bad luck followed the Croatian tennis star. Donna was defeated in the final round at Madrid Open, the first round at French Open, the second round at Baku Cup, the first round at US Open, and the first round at Tashkent Open. 

After a subpar 2014 season and a bad start to 2015, Donna’s ranking dropped to No. 177. She then entered the ITF event in Istanbul as the top seed but lost in the quarterfinals to the sixth seed, Margarita Gasparyan. 

Luckily, in the French Open, she claimed her first top-40 victory in the season after beating Caroline Garcia, Bojana Jovanovski, and Ana Ivanovic.

But again, Donna lost luck in the first half of the season by failing to qualify for Wimbledon or the US Open. Later, she ended the season ranking No. 105.

In 2016, Donna participated at the Australian Open and lost in the first round to qualifier Naomi Osaka. Meanwhile, she reached the San Antonio Open quarterfinals with a win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Kiki Bertens but lost to Tsvetana Pironkova.

Donna lost in the first round of ten consecutive WTA tournaments, including the French Open, from February to August. Similarly, in September, she reached the final ITF tournament in Saint Petersburg but lost to Natalia Vikhlyantseva. 

However, at the ITF Sharm El Sheikh, she had a victory after reaching the year’s ITF final. Likewise, she defeated Sara Sorribes Tormo and won her career’s fifth ITF title in the final. 

Ups & Downs

Donna won her second WTA title at the Nottingham Open in June 2017 after defeating Johanna Konta in three sets. Just like that, at the US Open, Donna reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

Not to mention that season, Donna broke into the world top 50 for the first time in July, reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 45 and ending the season ranking at No. 56.

Donna continued her success in 2018 and reached the semifinals in Tokyo by defeating top-10 players and later completed the season ranking No. 34.

Vekic’s 2019 season started well as she climbed to the Brisbane semifinals. Unfortunately, Donna could not keep this momentum at the Australian Open, as Kimberly Birrell defeated her in the second round. 

She rebounded her loss at her next tournament, reaching the biggest final of her career at the St. Petersburg Trophy. Vekic only played two matches after losing to Naomi Osaka in Stuttgart in the quarterfinals.

Later she qualified for the second-tier year-end singles tournament at the WTA Elite Trophy for the first time in her career. Nonetheless, she finished the 2019 season ranked No. 19 in the world, her first top-20 finish.

Donna kicked off her 2020 season at Brisbane International. She then played at the first edition of the Adelaide International and made it to the quarterfinal. 

Further, at the Australian Open, Vekic defeated Maria Sharapova in the first round but lost to Iga Swiatek in the third round. After that, at the St. Petersburg Trophy, she was defeated in the second round by Ekaterina Alexandrova. 

2020 Italian Open

Vekic started 2020 with Brisbane International, then continued her season with Adelaide International, Australian Open, St. Petersburg Ladies’ Trophy, and Qatar Open.

The 2020 Italian Open ended with Amanda Anisimova defeating Donna Vekic 3-6, 7-6(3), and 7-6(6) in Round 1 of the Italian Open 2020.

However, it wasn’t a smooth journey right then, as the exact match sparked controversial grounds which involved Donna. 

During the first half of the game, Donna took the lead over Amanda until she caught a blister during the tie-breaker of the second set.

However, it wasn’t that at all. Before it, Amanda had missed an easy smash on match-point and even lost the serve. 

Thus, Donna lost her patience when she took the match time out and furiously stated, “Really? Now?” Most people think it was Amanda’s tactic to break Donna’s momentum and her lead. Some even went to the extent of stating she had fake blisters. 

Donna Vekic represented Croatia at the Summer Olympics 2021 and lost to the eventual semifinalist Elena Rybakina.

In 2021, she fell out of the top 100 on 20 September to World No. 101—her lowest ranking in five years since year-end 2016.

Vekic won Courmayeur Open in October, which ranked her in the top 70.

Recent Career

She defeated four straight top-25 players at the WTA 500 San Diego Open but lost to Iga Swiatek.

She represented Croatia at the 2023 United Cup, winning three matches in straight sets, including a victory over french player Alize Cornet.

After her performance at the Australian Open, she moved up 30 in the ranking and re-entered the top 40 at World No. 33 on January 2023.

On November 24, 2022, the traditional announcement of the successful athletes, sports teams, and sports workers in Osijek and the Osijek-Baranja County for 2022 was held in the City Garden sports hall in Osijek.

Many successful athletes attended the event, including Dana Vekic. She was decorated as the ‘Tennis Talent’ from the Osijek for 2022. 

Playing Style & Stats

Vekic, as everyone knows, is an aggressive baseliner. She maintained a single career record of 268–199 (57.4%), while her single world ranking stood at No. 28. She was highest ranked No. 19 in November 2019.

Similarly, she had a double career record of 13–27 (32.5%) and was ranked No. 195. She stepped to the lowest world ranking of No. 171.

Her highest speed is 111 mph (178 km/h).

Vekic portrays powerful serves, among which groundstrokes are her assets. She also showcases quickness and speed in games, which often causes her errors. 

Overall, Vekic gives her opponent an aggressive taste of her speedballs. 

Net Worth & Income

Donna has had a very successful tennis career so far. 

Donna’s net worth has been assumed to be $3 million-$5 million as of 2023 by different sources.

Moreover, she has earned $1,674,073 as prize money from several championships. 

Her career earnings from 2012 to 2017 are estimated at $1,375,843. Her market value was $20,606,530 in the late 2010s. 

Tennis players do not earn a fixed salary as they are not in a deal or contract with anyone, so they depend on their tournament earnings and sponsorships.

However, they make good money from brand deals.

In 2021, Donna released a luxury home fragrance brand, DNNA. It includes beeswax candles and reed diffusers.

She stated that a proportion of all sales revenue would be donated towards bee conservation in her native Croatia.

Donna also endorses Yonex & ASISC.

Personal Life & Boyfriend

Donna Vekic was in a long relationship with fellow tennis player Stan Wawrinka for about four years.

The duo was known to have started dating in 2015 and later split up in 2019.

Stan divorced his wife Ilham Vuilloud, a former swiss TV presenter, in 2009 before meeting Vekic.

After the breakup, Donna is rumored to be in a relationship with fellow Croatian tennis player Borna Coric.

Reportedly, she was spotted watching Coric’s match against Nadal from the stands in the 2022 US Open.

Coric career-high ranking was No. 12 on November 5, 2018.

In her leisure time, Donna enjoys her life by spending time with her family and traveling.

Cheating Allegation 

In July 2017, the Roger’s Cup in Montreal witnessed one of the biggest scandals live that no one had ever expected.

When Donna Vekic was dating the Swiss pro-Stan Wawrinka, the news of her cheating came in like a tsunami. 

Nick Kyrgios stated that Vekic had slept with Australian player Thanasi Kokkinakis while she was dating Swiss pro-Stan Wawrinka during the middle of the match.

To illustrate, Nick shouted, “Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend. Sorry to tell you that, mate”. 

His comment was all over the court’s microphones, and everyone discussed the love triangle.

Nick was fined $5,600 (£4,700) for his behavior. However, the words spread wide like wildfire, and the duo was together as if nothing had happened. 

“I haven’t spoken to Kyrgios. But it’s a very disappointing thing to be happening in our sport, and I hope it won’t happen again because it’s not a very good image for our sport.”
-Donna Vekic

The two almost fought that time, but management handled the incident. Nick Kyrgios’s brother Christos also involved himself in the incident and posted on social media. However, Kyrgios apologized on Facebook for his behavior.

Social Media Presence

Donna Vekic has gained fame and recognition from a wide range of audiences. Vekic’s social media can indeed affirm her popularity.

She posts many pictures from photoshoots, photos with family, and matches.

Available as @DonnaVekic on Twitter, Donna has 79.6K followers. Also available on Instagram as @donnavekic, she has gained 223K followers.

Likewise, she also has a Facebook in which 142K people follow her.

Popularity Graph

Donna Vekic is a professional tennis player in the ITF and WTA who has won three singles titles on the WTA tour.

The popularity graph shows the wavelength from the last twelve months. She was highly searched after her performance at the Australian Open, where she played against Aryna Sabalenka.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)

Who is Donna Vekic's coach?

As of 2023, Donna Vekic is training under her coach Nikola Horvat. Also, Pamela Shriver is her assistant coach. Her former coaches were Torben Beltz, Luka Kutanjac, Sam Symuk, John Evert, and David Felgate.

Are Wawrinka and Donna Vekic still dating?

No, Swiss tennis player Stan Wawrinka and Donna Vekic were in a love relationship for four years. Donna is rumored to be dating Borna Coric, as per some sources

Where does Donna Vekic reside?

Donna Vekic currently resides in Monte Carlo, Monaco. She was born in Osijek, Croatia.

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