Olga Danilovic wins epic against Vekic to reach maiden fourth round at a Grand Slam
Olga Danilovic edged out Donna Vekic 0-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8) and will play the winner of the match between Chloe Paquet and Marketa Vondrousova next
Olga Danilovic – Imago / Panoramic
Olga Danilovic has reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career, overcoming Donna Vekic 0-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8) in a third-round epic at Roland-Garros.
In an encounter spanning three hours and eight minutes, the Serbian qualifier remarkably overturned a 6-0 opening-set loss to battle into her maiden second-week appearance at a major.
For the past two years, Danilovic has made steady, incremental progress at the clay-court Grand Slam, coming through three rounds of qualifying to reach the second and third rounds in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
This year, she has gone at least one step further. Again coming through qualifying, the Serb has taken out Martina Trevisan in the first round before back-to-back upsets against the hugely in-form Danielle Collins and now the world No 40 Vekic to reach the last 16 in Paris.
chastening first set gives way to the win of Danilovic’s career
The first set was a chastening experience for Danilovic, who struggled to cope with Vekic’s consistent depth of returning as she lost the opener without winning a game.
The Serb steadied the ship in the second set, making greater inroads on Vekic’s serve to take a lengthy middle stanza 7-5 with a late break, but she found herself trailing again in the decider, falling 3-1 down early on in the third.
Vekic twice served for the match, at 5-4 and 6-5, but could not get over the line against an opponent that simply refused to back down.
A deciding-set super tiebreak followed four successive breaks of serve, and – yet again – the Serb had to fight back from behind. She was 6-2 down before winning eight of the next ten points to come through an epic contest, falling to the floor in disbelief following match point.
a clay-courter with the weapons to be one of the best
Danilovic’s game is tailor-made for clay. Having grown up learning her craft on the surface, her movement on these courts is excellent, while requiring more time to set up her powerful, angled groundstrokes lends itself to a slower surface.
While she has yet to make significant inroads on the WTA tour away from the European clay, Danilovic has been one to watch during this stretch of the season for some time.
Now, it appears that significant breakthrough has come. Danilovic was visibly emotional after the match, unable to hold back tears as she thanked the crowd and spoke of her admiration for Paris and Roland-Garros.
“I don’t know what to say. I have no words,” she said in her on-court interview following her victory.
“Thank you everyone for supporting me here in this match. I’m enjoying my time here so much. I don’t even know how I won this match. I was coming back and down so many times.
“I’m so happy. I just want to say thank you everyone for being here. It’s been so many rain delays. Not good weather.
“You’re really a tennis country. I don’t know what to say.”
Danilovic will take on either French wildcard Chloe Paquet or fifth-seeded Marketa Vondrousova in the fourth round, a match that will be by far the biggest of her career.
Whatever happens in the last 16, this is a young player with extensive weaponry at her disposal, an innate instinct for clay-court tennis and – on today’s evidence – the fighting mindset of a champion.
Remember the name. It is more than likely we will hear it being chanted around the cavernous four corners of Philippe-Chatrier for some years yet.
