Iva Jovic made history as the youngest American at the age of 16 to secure a victory in a women’s main-draw match at the U.S. Open since 2000. She achieved this by defeating Magda Linette of Poland, who reached the semifinals of the 2023 Australian Open, with a score of 6-4, 6-3 on Monday. Four years ago, Katrina Scott from the U.S. was 16 when she triumphed in a match at the U.S. Open. Last year, Mirra Andreeva from Russia also achieved this feat at the age of 16.
Jovic was involved in several sports during her childhood, including soccer, gymnastics, and swimming. However, she was drawn to tennis, a sport she started learning with her older sister on the courts located at the top of their apartment complex in Torrance, California, where they lived.
Jovic secured a wild-card entry into the main draw of this year’s final Grand Slam by clinching the U.S. Tennis Association Girls’ 18s national championship. Additionally, she teamed up with Tyra Grant to win the doubles title, earning them a wild card for women’s doubles at Flushing Meadows. The USTA also awarded Jovic and fellow American teenager Kaylan Bigun a place in the mixed doubles competition.
Jovic and Grant joined forces to claim junior doubles championships at the Australian Open in January and Wimbledon in July. They also finished as the finalists at the French Open in June.
The young player admires 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic, whose Serbian heritage aligns with her own, and Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Belinda Bencic. Following the English part of her press conference on Monday, she responded to questions in Serbian.
“Djokovic, I mean, do I need to say? We all know how great he is, and then Belinda, she just takes the ball so early and her footwork is very cutting the angle, so she just makes her opponents feel kind of suffocated. That’s what I would like to try to do'', she told the press.