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Donna Vekic defeated Clara Tauson to clinch the Courmayeur Ladies Open title on Sunday. Vekic won 7-6(3), 6-2 in an hour and 46 minutes. Vekic won 76% of her first-serve points to the fifth seed’s 57%. The Croatian hit 39 winners, 16 more than the Dane’s 23 and had four fewer unforced errors than the 17 unforced errors the latter hit.
Vekic broke Tauson five times (of the 10 break points, she had) while saving four of the seven break points, she faced.
Courmayeur Ladies Open: Donna Vekic's resurgence
This was Vekic’s first title in more than four years – going back to 2017 – and the third title of her career overall.
Back in June 2017, Vekic won the Nottingham Open (def. Johanna Konta). In fact, this was Vekic’s first final in more than two years, going back to the 2019 edition of the Nottingham Open. Back then, the 25-year-old had lost to Caroline Garcia in the final.
On the other hand, this was Tauson’s third final this year and the Dane was attempting to extend her unbeaten streak in finals to three. Earlier in the season, Tauson had won the Lyon and Luxembourg Opens defeating Viktorija Golubic and Jelena Ostapenko respectively.
The final in the Italian tournament was the first meeting between the 21-year-old and Vekic. Once ranked as high as 19th in the world, Donna Vekic had dropped down to the 101st place in the rankings after having to sit out for a few months because of a knee injury and subsequent surgery.
She’s now made significant strides in the WTA ranking following her run at the Courmayeur Ladies Open. Vekic had entered the draw ranked 97th in the world and on Monday, 1st November, she gained 30 spots and is now ranked 67th in the world.
Tauson, too, gained in the rankings and has now reached a new career-high of 46th in the world. Photo Credit: Donna Vekic Twitter