Vekic earned her first Top 10 victory of the year and her first championship since 2021 with the victory.
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In the championship match of the WTA 250 tournament in Monterrey, Mexico, on Sunday, Donna Vekic defeated top seed Caroline Garcia 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to win her fourth championship of her career. Vekic earned her first Top 10 victory of the year and her first championship since 2021 with the victory. On Monday, Vekic will move up to No. 24, continuing her ascent after missing this time last year due to injury. With her win on Sunday, she has a 14-2 record to start the 2023 season, one win behind the tour’s leaders in match wins, Garcia and Belinda Bencic, who have 15 wins each.
“It was a crazy match until the end, [Garcia] was playing so well, playing so deep,” Vekic said, after her win. “I was trying to win as many points as I could. It was not easy, but I’m really happy to win. It’s been a great start of the year for me. If the title didn’t come now, I believe that it would have come soon. So I’ve been playing good tennis, and I just need to keep working hard and hopefully stay healthy, and I’m sure I will keep having good results.”
Vekic, who was seeded third in Monterrey, entered her first season final with confidence after losing just one set all week and going without a break in her semifinal victory over Zhu Lin. She led Garcia 5-4 in their head-to-head matchup, but Garcia had a similarly dominant week. Garcia had not lost a set going into the final and had only faced six break points in her previous four matches, dropping her serve just once. In the close first set, which was decided by just one serve break, Vekic got the advantage first. She defeated Garcia to take a 2-1 lead and didn’t encounter another break point until she stepped up to serve the set out. Vekic ended the first set after 41 minutes after Garcia missed three returns in a row with an 0-40 lead to get the set back on serve.
In the third set, Garcia’s relentless return pressure was overcome by Vekic’s tenacity. In order to keep Garcia at bay in her opening service game from 15-40 down, she wiped out four break points. She then repeated the action in an 11-minute game at 3-all. Garcia finally gave in after having eight break points pass her by in the set. Garcia misfired on a serve intended to force a tiebreaker, awarding Vekic three championship points. After 2 hours and 29 minutes of play, Vekic only needed one more point to win. She did this by watching Garcia’s forehand fly wide.
Vekic broke on all three of her earned break points, saving 16 of the match’s 18 break points while remaining flawless on her few opportunities. Her serving performance was excellent, which improved her ability to hold. Vekic beat Garcia’s 69% success rate by serving 13 aces, which was her season high. She also won 74% of her first-serve points.
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