Donna Vekic used harsh language when asked about her cold handshake with Zheng Qinwen. The Croatian tennis star said there were “many controversial stories” about the Chinese in the locker room but did not want to go into details.

On Saturday, Vekic, 28, suffered a 2-6 3-6 defeat to Zheng, 21, in the Paris Olympics final. While Vekic gave Zheng credit for his performance and admitted the Chinese player was the better player that year, one thing stood out – a very cold handshake that took place at the net immediately after the match ended.

Vekic confirmed in an interview with a Croatian newspaper that he was frustrated with Zheng, the 2024 Australian Open finalist, because he felt she was “constantly delaying her serve” and trying to subtly disrupt his rhythm with her moves.

“He would constantly delay the service as soon as someone’s voice was heard or someone moved in the crowd. He was taking breaks in a completely wrong way. We cannot expect the audience to sit like statues. There are many controversial stories about him, but I will not talk about them now,” Vekic told the Croatian newspaper Jutarnji.

For world number seven Zheng, it was not the first time a player had criticised her at the Olympics. After Zheng beat Emma Navarro 6-7(7) 7-6(4) 6-1 in the last 16, the 15th-ranked American told the Chinese that she “did not respect her as an opponent”.

“I said I don’t respect him as an opponent. I think he does things in a pretty ruthless way. He creates a locker room where there’s not a lot of camaraderie, so it’s tough to face an opponent like that who I don’t really respect. But congratulations to him, he played some good tennis in the end. He played better than me, so congratulations to him,” Navarro said of Zheng.

Vekic made a striking statement about how he felt when he came to the Olympics

After finishing second in Bad Homburg and reaching his first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon, Vekic made no secret of being extremely tired and exhausted. And the 28-year-old Croatian was sick at the end of his deep run at Wimbledon, which was another problem to deal with.

All of this led to Vekic feeling unwell in training and thinking he had no chance of winning an Olympic medal in Paris.

“After Wimbledon I got sick, my arm hurt, my wrist hurt and I didn’t feel like I could win a medal. Then we arrived in Paris a day later because the flight was cancelled, in the first training I was coughing and couldn’t put two shots together. I said to the coach, ‘Nick, what are we doing?’ A week later I just said to him, ‘Nick, we have a medal.’ I did my best, when I play for Croatia I give 200%,” Vekic said.

Vekic: I was disappointed but Zheng was better

After advancing to the final and securing at least the silver medal, Vekic was hoping to take the final step and leave Paris with the gold. But Vekic never came close to beating Zheng.

Although disappointing, the last thing the Croatian wanted to do was be negative or pessimistic about the defeat in the final.

“I am extremely proud and happy to win a medal for Croatia, I have fulfilled my life’s dream. The day I won the semi-final was one of the happiest days of my life. Now I am a bit disappointed because I wanted gold but Zheng was better. I cannot forget or ignore what I did these weeks, to be honest,” Vekic added.

When asked what he would do with the silver medal, Vekic jokingly said they would be sleeping buddies for the rest of the year.

“What will I do with the medal? I will sleep with it for six months. Not longer, because we will start the new year with new goals,” Vekic shared humorously.

Over the past month, Vekic has shown a surge in interest in tennis in Croatia, which will likely lead to more Croatian children picking up rackets and starting to play tennis.

“I’m happy if I could inspire kids to start playing tennis. This has been my goal for a long time, since we started building (tennis courts) in Osijek (Vekic’s hometown) and we built three courts. We want to do our best to get as many kids involved in the sport as possible,” Vekic said.