Donna Vekic defeats Caroline Garcia to win entertaining Monterrey Open final and move into top 25 of WTA rankings

Donna Vekic beat Caroline Garcia 6-4 3-6 7-5 in an entertaining Monterrey Open final to win her fourth career WTA Tour title.

A dip in form over the last three years, plus a severe injury that forced her to miss half of last season, had seen Vekic fall down the rankings.

However, she has been making her way back up towards the sharp end of the WTA Tour and is now ranked inside the top 25.

“It was a crazy match until the end,” said Vekic. “[Garcia] was playing so well, playing so deep.

“I was trying to win as many points as I could. It was not easy, but I’m really happy to win.

“It’s been a great start to the year for me. If the title didn’t come now, I believe that it would have come soon.

“So I’ve been playing good tennis, and I just need to keep working hard and hopefully stay healthy, and I’m sure I will keep having good results.”

Vekic broke at 2-1 in the first set which proved to be the decisive moment in the first part of the match.

When serving for the set, the Croatian faced three break points but Garcia failed to return either of the serves so Vekic took the set in 41 minutes.

She immediately broke Garcia at the start of the second and had a 2-0 lead, only for Garcia to find her rhythm as she won five games in a row to take the match to a decider.

Garcia had four break points in each of the first and seventh games in the final set, but she couldn’t take them, and neither player could break serve to leave the match at 5-5.

A tie-break beckoned, but serving to stay in the final, Garcia had a terrible service game at 6-5 down and handed the title to Vekic.

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