Donna Vekic could not keep her emotions in check during her three-hour match against Jasmine Paolini at Wimbledon, which the Italian won 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8).
In a dramatic third set, Vekic reacted with heartbreak to each point lost, crying openly even though the match was still within reach.
When Vekic hit the shot to put Paolini ahead, the Croatian tennis player started crying as she looked towards her corner, reports Express.
Despite the emotional moment, he regained his composure and won the next game to force a tiebreaker, which Paolini won to reach the Wimbledon final at the All England Club on Saturday.
Vekic was struggling with a hand injury which caused an emotional outburst during the third set.
“I thought I was going to die in the third set. My arms and legs were hurting a lot. It wasn’t easy to play there,” Vekic told reporters after the match, according to AFP.
Thursday’s match became the longest women’s semifinal in Wimbledon history and the first of six of Vekic’s tournament matches to go three sets.
During his loss to Paolini on Thursday, he made 57 unforced errors throughout the match.
“I was crying a lot because I was in so much pain, I didn’t know how I was going to continue playing,” she said.
Vekic had been considering retirement since her third-round exit at the French Open earlier this summer, reflecting a lack of motivation on her part.
However, it is hard to say where she will go next and she became emotional when she tried to find the positive side of her game.
The moderator of the press conference had to intervene when she began crying, reports Express.
“My team tells me I can be proud of myself,” Vekic said. “It’s hard right now. It’s really hard. I definitely have to take a few days to take it all in. Yeah, I don’t know, it’s hard to be positive right now. It was a very close match. I had a lot of chances.”
