RANCHO SANTA FE, October 3, 2024 (by Steve Pratt)
It’s been quite a year for Torrance’s 16-year-old rising tennis star Iva Jovic.
Just seven weeks ago, Jovic was the talk of tennis in the United States having won the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s Nationals for junior tennis’ biggest prize earning a wild card into the US Open Women’s main draw. Jovic would go on to stun 2023 Australian Open semifinalist Magda Linette losing just seven games before falling to No. 29 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, 7-5 in the third, but still earning a total of $140,000 in prize money.
On Wednesday in the first round at the Rancho Santa Fe Open in North San Diego County – just 35 miles from that Nationals victory near Point Loma – Jovic did it again, this time coming back in convincing fashion to beat former Princeton University star Victoria Hu from Massachusetts, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, at the ITF W75 event taking place at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club.
Currently ranked No. 290 in the WTA world rankings, Jovic is the No. 2-ranked ITF junior player in the world and has already won the Australian Open and Wimbledon Junior doubles titles this year. Just last week, Jovic won her second ITF professional title at the Berkeley W35 tournament.
Jovic, who makes numerous trips to the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., and works closely with her USTA National coach Tom Gutteridge, still spends ample time when she’s home with Peter Smith, the former five-time NCAA title winning coach for USC. Jovic will next face another former Trojan in Madison Sieg in the second round at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Former WTA world-ranked No. 26 Lauren Davis, who had gone more than a year without winning a main-draw match, finally ended her streak as the qualifier played solid tennis against Louisa Chirico dropping just three games, 6-3, 6-0. Davis had lost 10 first-round matches this year since returning from a seven-month injury layoff in April that saw her ranking drop from No. 72 on January 1 to her current No. 554.
Another player who turned up the heat in the second and final set was No. 3 seeded Ena Shibahara, who represents Japan but grew up in Rancho Palos Verdes and led the UCLA Bruins to an NCAA team title in 2014. Shibahara was tired of the “doubles specialist” label as she reached the No. 4 ranking in the world and won the 2022 French Open Mixed Doubles title. She has progressed nicely since focusing solely on singles and beat former USD star and qualifier Solymar Colling, 6-2, 6-0.
Like Jovic, Annika Penickova from Campbell near San Jose, is still considered a junior at the age of 15. The wild card looked impressive Wednesday advancing with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Dejana Radanovic from Serbia.
The 2022 RSF Open singles finalist, 20-year-old Katrina Scott from Woodland Hills, Calif., wasn’t able to repeat her past glory as she was eliminated in the first round by qualifier Carolyn Campana. It was the biggest win of Campana’s career as the Northern Californian, who played her college tennis at Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Pepperdine, had previously qualified for a $60,000 but did not advance pas the first round. Campana, whose father Mark played tennis at UCLA, came back after dropping the first set to beat Scott, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
Six of the seven top-seeded players who have competed have survived the first round with No. 1 Maya Joint from Australia moving on with a 6-4, 6-2 win over lucky loser Tori Kinard from Pasadena.
In doubles, the local wild card team of Alyssa Ahn, 17, from Torrey Pines and Julieta Pareja, 15, from Carlsbad were close, but couldn’t quite pull off the upset losing 10-8 in a super tiebreaker after splitting sets against the No. 2 seeds Maria Kononova and Maria Kozyreva. The No. 1 team of Carmen Corley and Iryna Shymanovich took out San Diego State wild cards Vesa Gjinaj and Zoe Olmos, 6-1, 6-3.
