In Charleston debut, U.S. teen Iva Jovic has room to grow amid meteoric rise

CHARLESTON—Growing up in Southern California, Iva Jovic didn’t step on a clay court until about five years ago.

“Honestly, I didn't even know what clay was until I was 13,” the wide-eyed but no-nonsense 18-year-old told press after sliding through an opening-round victory at the Credit One Charleston Open.

Jovic showed off her hard-court prowess last fall when she stormed to a WTA 500 title in Guadalajara, and topped that result on an even bigger stage in January when she made the Australian Open quarterfinals. As the WTA Tour turns to clay, the world No. 16 is eager to adapt her game to a surface that ought to suit her clean, athletic ground game.

“I've just been doing movement drills every single day, right?” Jovic said. “So, I haven't really played a ton on clay in my life, but when it's clay season, I'm working on my movement every single day.

“So, it's improved rapidly because of just the volume of movement that I've been doing. There's no secret there. You just gotta do the drills.”

A year ago, Jovic was ranked No. 150 and playing a smaller WTA tournament in Bogota, Colombia. The teenager now finds herself in a position familiar to most phenoms, eager to improve while retaining the core of her game, which has already helped her compete and win against the game’s best.

“I don't feel that I'm close to maximizing myself yet,” she told me in press. “When I was younger, I just wanted to play. I just dreamt about playing tennis and being good enough to be in the Slams. So, this is all already above what I expected for myself. But now that I'm here and I see how much more room I have for improvement, I see that there's a lot of opportunities ahead.”

The Serbian-American frequently names Novak Djokovic among her idols. Rarely does a press conference go by when she is not asked about meeting the former No. 1 and the advice he’s given her—and the charmingly star-struck Jovic is still happy to oblige. At the same time, she shows impressive self-awareness when extrapolating her own potential, citing player comps like Belinda Bencic, Jessica Pegula, and potential third-round opponent Bianca Andreescu—all of whom play the kind of aggressive counter-punching that to which Jovic clearly aspires.

“I think a lot of tennis players, we're very stubborn and can be a little bit extreme because we're just perfectionists, right, and tennis is one of those sports where it's physically impossible to be perfect and to not miss.

“I try to identify who am I as a player, what is my game style, and then you just build around that. And I try to just emulate certain people, think about players that have been extremely successful in this sport and what do they have that I don't have—someone who plays similar to you, but maybe you don't have all those little fine tunes that they have.”

Jovic sought to employ some of those improvements against fellow American Alycia Parks in Charleston, who she played exactly one year ago in Bogota.

“I was trying to mix up my return positions a little bit more, which I think I did a better job,” she said after the straight-sets victory. “I mixed up my serve quite a bit with the second, and I think that made it a little bit more effective. I didn't get broken after that first game.

“Maybe could have mixed in some more drop shots, but there was one attempt. So I'll take that well and definitely be better on some defensive skills. So, it's getting there. I would like to see even more, but I think it's on a good program.”

If this is how Jovic competes with room to grow, it may not be long before players are looking to emulate her.