By Chris Oddo

(June 14, 2013) -- Playing matches on grass for the first time in her professional career, Croatian Donna Vekic is finding the surface to her liking.

Read: Getting to Know Donna Vekic

The 16-year-old World No. 89 won for the fourth consecutive time at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham, England, today, taking out Romania's Sorana Cirstea, 6-2, 6-1.

Through several rain delays, the youngest woman in the WTA's top 100 handled the challenging situation with aplomb. “It was tough going out on the court a few times and then off again,” Vekic said afterwards. “You need to stay warm, focused all the time and be ready from the get go, which wasn’t easy but I think I did a pretty good job today.”

She returned with a vengeance, winning 81 percent (26 of 32) of points against Cirstea's second serve, to reach her second career WTA semifinal.

Grass, apparently, suits the younster's aggressive on-court mindset. “I like to attack during matches and during the points and I like to be in control of the points, and I think that really suits the grass court,” Vekic said after the match.

Another youngster, 18-year-old Madison Keys of the U.S., didn't have as much luck in her fourth career grass-court encounter. Keys had won three straight on the surface heading into her quarterfinal with Magdalena Rybarikova, but the American managed to win only 36 percent of her service points despite a first-serve percentage of 77 on the afternoon.

The 16th-seeded Slovakian moves on to face the rising Vekic in one semifinal tomorrow at Birmingham, while Daniela Hantuchova will have to wait to find out who she'll face in the other semifinal.

Hantuchova dug her way out of several deep holes to defeat Francesca Schiavone, 6-7(8), 6-4, 7-6(3), in three hours and 22 minutes. Hantuchova was down a break in the second and third sets, and also trailed 3-0 in the deciding tiebreak before rallying to victory.

She'll face the winner of the Sabine Lisicki-Alison Riske quarterfinal, which was suspended due to darkness with the players tied at 2-2 in the third set.

(Photo Credit: SkySports)