Vekic ends a five-match losing run in her first win since Queen’s

Donna Vekic had not won a match since June, and she nearly failed to win this one from a position that should have settled it. The Croatian led Australian Talia Gibson 6-2, 4-1 on Sunday evening, lost the second set, and recovered to take the third for a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win that put her into the second round of the US Open and ended a five-match losing streak.

Her last victory came at Queen’s Club in June, where she entered as a lucky loser and beat Emma Raducanu in the final for the fifth title of her career. Nothing since. She reaches the last major of the season at 11-12 for the year.

Gibson is a more dangerous first-round draw than her record suggests. The 22-year-old has six career wins over top-40 opponents, the best of them against Jasmine Paolini at Indian Wells this year when the Italian was ranked World No. 7, and she won five of six games from 1-4 down in the second set. But she was 0-1 at this tournament and has never won a match at Roland-Garros or Wimbledon.

Vekic reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2024 and took Olympic silver in Paris weeks later. This is her 12th main draw at Flushing Meadows, more than at any other major, and the quarter-final she made in 2019 is still her best run here. Ranked No. 34, she plays American No. 29 seed Ann Li or her compatriot Antonia Ruzic next.