Donna Vekic is playing with the freedom of a player on borrowed time.
Everything is a bonus after surviving two match points to deny Dutch sixth seed Kiki Bertens in the second round.
And on Friday, the 22-year-old put in a flawless display to beat last year’s finalist, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, in the Brisbane International quarter-finals.
Vekic peppered the Belarusian’s forehand wing to pull off a 6-2 6-0 victory, equalling her deepest run at a Premier Level WTA event, achieved in Tokyo last season.
“It’s been the match of the tournament so far.”
Donna Vekic in brutal form, 6-2 6-0 over Aliaksandra Sasnovich to book her place in the #BrisbaneTennis semis. What a display!
She’ll meet the Pliskova-Tomljanovic winner pic.twitter.com/azYsvoqGEr
— #BrisbaneTennis (@BrisbaneTennis) January 4, 2019
“I’m really happy. I think today was probably one of the most perfect matches I’ve ever played in my career,” Vekic said.
“Everything was going well for me. I was trying to be aggressive, trying to play my game and not give her time to be aggressive, because if she’s on, she’s on.
“Like I was watching her match against Svitolina, and I was like, ‘oh, wow, that’s going to be tough’.”
Sasnovich had won the hearts of the Brisbane crowd with her run through qualifying to reach last year’s final and again on Wednesday night when she avenged that final defeat to topple No.1 seed Elina Svitolina.
“Today was one of the most perfect matches I’ve played in my career,” says @DonnaVekic. “There’s ups and downs in life and I’ve gone thru that… I hope it’s going to be more stable now” #BrisbaneTennis pic.twitter.com/PjIQ8tMvjp
— #BrisbaneTennis (@BrisbaneTennis) January 4, 2019
But on Friday, she had few answers to the Croatian’s all-court aggression.
Vekic started strongly in taking a 4-0 lead in the opening set, but was more dominant in the second when she lost just two points on return to take the set in 26 minutes.
Sasnovich did not win a point on her first serve in the second set.
Vekic will meet either 2017 champion and No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova or Croatian-born Australian Ajla Tomljanovic for a place in her seventh career final.