{"id":411670,"date":"2024-07-12T05:50:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T05:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=411670"},"modified":"2024-07-12T06:05:02","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T06:05:02","slug":"doubts-cast-over-cause-of-distressing-breakdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=411670","title":{"rendered":"Doubts cast over cause of distressing breakdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former player and respected commentator Mark Petchey says Donna Vekic's emotional breakdown<\/a> had more to do with letting the match slip rather than the pain she was experiencing in her arm and leg.<\/p>\n

After taking the first set 6-2 and having her chances in the second and third sets, the Croatian star capitulated late to hand it to Jasmine \ufeffPaolini, who never had won a match at the All England Club until last week.<\/p>\n

Paolini capitalised on her chance to qualify for her second consecutive grand slam final, taking the match 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) in 2 hours, 51 minutes on Centre Court.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> League great tears apart popular Immortal choices<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Olympic coach withdraws as misconduct claims emerge<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Flag bearers named as superstar Paralympians get nod<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Vekic was crying between points during the match and while sitting in her chair during the changeover late in the third set – because, she said afterward, of pain in an arm and a leg.<\/p>\n

"I mean, I thought I was going to die in the third set. I had so much pain in my arm, in my leg. It was not easy out there, but I will recover," she said.<\/p>\n

"My team tells me that I can be proud of myself. It's tough right now. It's really tough.<\/p>\n

Watch Wimbledon 2024 live and exclusively free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Plus centre court in 4K UHD on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the home of grand slam tennis<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1811604331252318496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"I was more crying because I had so much pain, I didn't know how I could keep playing.<\/p>\n

"For sure, I will need to take couple of days to see everything. Yeah, I don't know, it's tough to be positive right now. It was so close.<\/p>\n

"I had a lot of chances, yeah [tearing up]."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However, Petchey said it was the pressure of the moment and knowing she blew her chance to play in her maiden grand slam final, that was more likely the trigger.<\/p>\n

"You're not going to get many more chances to make a Wimbledon<\/a> final against Paolini," Petchey told Stan Sport's Grand Slam Daily<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

"It did look very emotional for Donna at 6-5 and to have those two break points on Paolini's serve, not being able to take them.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1811587682981831001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"She says it's probably something else but I kind of feel as though she knew that was her moment."<\/p>\n

Both Paolini and Vekic were playing their first Wimbledon semi-final, with the Italian having never won a match on grass before this year.\ufeff<\/p>\n

The Italian joins a list of tennis greats including Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Justine Henin and Steffi Graf to advance to the final at Roland Garros<\/a> and Wimbledon in the same year.<\/p>\n

\"Jasmine<\/p>\n

She is also the first Italian woman to reach the All England Club final.<\/p>\n

"It is no question that she's on the front foot [heading into the final]," Petchey said.<\/p>\n

Paolini will face \ufeff31st seed Barbora Krejcikova in Saturday's final, after the Czech star produced a striking comeback to defeat 2022 champion Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.<\/p>\n

"There's been a big shift for (Paolini) [in her game]. Confidence \ufeffwill take you everywhere. She's up to a career high, number five in the world live rankings now," Petchey said.<\/p>\n

"She looked like she could go another seven hours.<\/p>\n

"The fact she had never won on grass before – I think that's the first time that's happened\ufeff here at Wimbledon since Justine Henin in 2001. She's rewriting history books."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former player and respected commentator Mark Petchey says Donna Vekic's emotional breakdown had more to do with letting the match slip rather than the pain […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":411525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=411670"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411674,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411670\/revisions\/411674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/411525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=411670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=411670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=411670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}