RANCHO SANTA FE, October 6, 2024 (by Steve Pratt)
Unseeded 16-year-old Iva Jovic will meet her Los Angeles County South Bay friend and neighbor Ena Shibahara in the Rancho Santa Fe Open singles final on Sunday in a finals rematch from seven months ago won by the No. 3-seeded Shibahara.
Both players won convincing straight-set matches in the semifinals of the ITF World Tennis Tour W75 tournament with $60,000 worth of prize money at stake in the event taking place at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club.
Torrance’s Jovic beat No. 5 seeded Lanlana Tararudee from Thailand, 6-1, 7-5, to win her ninth consecutive match while the former UCLA star Shibahara from Rancho Palos Verdes continued her dominating play this week to beat Canada’s Katherine Sebov, 6-1, 6-3. Shibahara has yet to lose a set this week, and her scorelines include two 6-1 wins, and a pair at 6-0. The 26-year-old Shibahara avenged a tough loss just one week ago to Sebov in the first round of the Templeton ITF W75 in which she lost the first set 6-0.
Considered a doubles specialist and former world No. 4 and a French Open mixed doubles champion, Shibahara is giving it a go in singles. She won four matches at the recent US Open and qualified and won her first round before falling to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
In March, Shibahara beat Jovic 6-3 in the third set in the final to win her first ITF singles title at the W35 Spring, Texas, tournament. Just last week, Jovic won her third second ITF pro title by taking the Berkeley W35 singles title.
“It was great to win last week and I had a tough first round here but was able to keep it rolling,” said Jovic, who will play one more W75 in Edmond, Okla., before training for the rest of the year with the USTA in Florida. “After Edmond I’ll take a little time off to rest and train. Then maybe a $50k in Boca Raton, and maybe Orange Bowl [junior event], but kind of winding down after Edmond.”
Jovic is still undecided on whether or not she will turn pro, wanting to keep her college eligibility in case she decides to go that route.
“I still haven’t decided [about turning pro],” Jovic said. “I’m just keeping my options open.”
When asked if she had a bar or ranking she might reach to make that decision, the No. 290-ranked Jovic said, “Not really. I think I’ll just know when the time is right. There’s no urgency for me.”
She added: “We’ve just been working hard to develop my game and now things are clicking. We’ve been making good runs all year and so it’s nice to be winning titles and just being consistent all year.”
Former WTA player Kathy Rinaldi, the USTA’s National Coach, Women’s Tennis. has been coaching Jovic, along with her other USTA national coaches, for the past two weeks. She likes what she is seeing from the prodigy.
“She’s just such a hard worker and so aggressive and has just improved in so many aspects,” Rinaldi said. “She has such a great growth mindset and she’s improved her serve and her slice and coming forward. She’s just so tough. She just strikes the ball so well from both sides.”
About the decision to turn pro, Rinaldi said, “It’s her decision. That’s a personal decision and between her and her family. She’s obviously having great results but she’s also a very bright girl and into her studies, too, and I’m sure they’ll make the right decision when the time comes.”
The doubles final will kick off Sunday’s action at 11 a.m. featuring a local San Diego product in a matchup of the No. 2 and 3 seeds. Former Cal-Berkeley No. 1 Haley Giavara, who grew up in San Diego and attended Serra High, and partner Rasheeda McAdoo will take on No. 2 Maria Kononova and Maria Kozyreva. In Saturday’s semifinals, Giavara and McAdoo beat the No. 1 seeded team of American Carmen Corley and Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus in a super tiebreaker.
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