Donna Vekic and Wimbledon are made for one another. At 28, the Croatian has won through to the first Grand Slam semi-final of her career here; meanwhile, as all followers of Vekic know, she is also the CEO of her own luxury interior fragrance business.
Browse through that website, and among the available scents one in particular catches the eye this Fortnight – “champagne and strawberry”. The natural beeswax candle in Murano glass is yours for £114, the reed diffuser £140. No discount aisle dupes here.
“Sometimes you don’t want to make any compromises, especially when you’re on the tennis court looking forward to victory,” advises the accompanying sales description gravely. “For Donna, this is the scent of success, adrenaline, cheering and indulging in the magic of tennis in its truest form. Let this refreshing and tempting scent awake the winner in you.”
Judging by that information, it can only be assumed that Vekic is positively bathing in her own range at the moment. For the world No.37, winner of four titles between 2014 and 2023, made her Wimbledon debut way back in 2013.
With four tumbles at the first hurdle, her record in SW19 can best be described as chequered. Her sole visit to the second week came in 2018, where Julia Goerges saw her off in the last 16.
Come 2021, right knee problems had Vekic contemplating retirement. She used the enforced lay-off for more than just rehab. Having always loved lighting a soothing candle at the end of a stressful day’s on-court travails, she set about creating her fragrance business.
But self-described as “strong-willed, determined and extremely competitive”, this daughter of a track hurdler and a footballer carries sporting ambition in her DNA. Her on-court potential remained not yet fully charted and she found she could not turn her back on tennis.
Duly re-invigorated (no doubt by her own bergamot and patchouli range – “this combination will provide you with the necessary energy boost”), she returned to the Tour. In autumn 2022, with her longtime ally Nikola Horvat still her lead coach, Vekic began working additionally with Pam Shriver, three times a singles semi-finalist at Wimbledon and of course five times a doubles title winner here with Martina Navratilova.
Last year saw the Croatian reach her second Grand Slam quarter-final in Australia and capture the title in Monterrey, to date her most recent crown. Yet even now, during her current Wimbledon run, nothing has come particularly easy.
All but one of her five victories this Championship has gone the distance, including tough wins over No.28 seed Dayana Yastremska in the third round and former world No.2 Paula Badosa in the last 16. Small wonder Vekic’s emotional relief was palpable on coming through her quarter-final against the outstanding qualifier Lulu Sun.
“She really pushed me to my limits,” admitted the Croatian through tears in her on-court post-match interview. “I felt like I was dying out there during the first two sets.”
But perhaps it would be truer to say that Vekic found her limits could be stretched beyond that which she had thought possible. It was yet further evidence of her refusal to give up in pursuit of new achievement.
By reaching the semi-final here, her ranking will nudge the top 20. If she can convert that into a place in the final itself, than she will surge several places above her previous career high of No.19. Whisper it, but should Vekic become the second successive unseeded woman to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish (after Marketa Vondrousova last year), she will be knocking on the door of the top ten.
Of course, to take even the first of those steps she must get past the No.7 seed Jasmine Paolini, a fellow late bloomer and the Croatian’s junior by just five months. The Italian is looking to build upon her recent experience at Roland-Garros, where she reached a Grand Slam final for the first time.
At Wimbledon, theirs is a semi-final few would have forecast. But in the garden of SW19, Vekic is minded to end the rapid blossoming of this Jasmine, in pursuit of her own sweet smell of success.
