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Who Is Iva Jovic? All You Need to Know About Youngest American in 24 Years to Win US Open Main-Draw Match
Iva Jovic, remember the name as we might get to hear about her a lot in the future, and who knows, as the face of USA tennis.
Iva Jovic, 16, pulled off a stunning upset by defeating Magda Linette of Poland in the US Open 2024 women's singles preliminary round. On Monday, August 26, the teenager defeated her Polish opponent 6-4, 6-3 on Court 15 in an hour and twenty-eight minutes.
Jovic, who is ranked No. 389 in the world, also made history by being the youngest American winner of a US Open main-draw match since 2000. At Flushing Meadows in 2020, Katrina Scott defeated Natalia Vikhlyantseva of Russia 7-6, 6-2. At the time, Scott was 16 years old.
She received a wild card into the current hard-court major after winning the US Tennis Association Girls' 18s National Championship earlier this year. Along with Tyra Grant, she will compete in the women's doubles after the two won the doubles title at the same national championship.
During her early years, Jovic participated in a variety of sports, such as swimming, gymnastics, and soccer. But tennis, which she started playing on the courts atop their Torrance, California apartment building with her older sister, turned out to be her true passion.
Jovic, who attended the Jack Kramer Club to hone her skills, is the daughter of doctors Bojan and Jelena. The legendary tennis players Lindsay Davenport, Pete Sampras, and Tracy Austin got their start in tennis at this prestigious facility in Rolling Hills Estates. Jovic continues her education, attending classes virtually because she finds them "convenient and... very lenient."
Jovic and Grant won the junior doubles Australian Open competition back in January. They went on to win the Wimbledon title after finishing as the runners-up in the French Open. Jovic's favorite tennis players are the late great Novak Djokovic and gold medalist Belinda Bencic from the Tokyo Olympics.
"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,” Jovic had said after beating Linette.
Jovic's next opponent is 29-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova, who defeated Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria 6-7 (4-7), 6-0, 7-5 in the opening round.
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