At 18, Iva Jovic is already showing a knack for acting – and playing – well beyond her years.
The American successfully defended her Guadalajara title over the weekend, defeating Peyton Stearns 6-4, 6-2 in the final to improve to a perfect 9-0 at the event. Jovic, who won her maiden WTA title in Guadalajara as a 17-year-old last season, did not drop a set during this year’s run.
The triumph lifted the Torrance, California native to a career-high No. 13 in the WTA rankings and made her the youngest woman to successfully defend a WTA title since Maria Sharapova at Birmingham in 2005.
For four-time major champion Kim Clijsters, however, it isn’t just Jovic’s results that stand out.
Clijsters joined Andy Roddick on the Served podcast and pointed to the teenager’s maturity as one of the first things that caught her attention.
“I think the first thing that stood out for me was, prior to the Billie Jean King Cup when they played against Belgium, was her maturity on court,” Clijsters said. “I think for a player of her age, she was so mature, even in her on-court interviews and press conferences. I think that stood out for me right away.”
The former world No. 1 has also been impressed by Jovic’s ability to apply relentless pressure from the baseline.
“Her ability to just kind of stay on top of the baseline, she’s so fit, moves really well from side to side,” Clijsters said. “I feel like there’s a consistent pressure that she’s able to put onto the opposite side of the net. And that is really hard for a lot of players to beat.”
There is still plenty of room for improvement, particularly on serve. Clijsters believes Jovic can become stronger and raise both her first-serve percentage and the effectiveness of her second serve.
But she sees the raw material for something much bigger.
“She has everything to become really, really good,” Clijsters said.
Roddick agreed, identifying the serve as an area that will need to develop as Jovic climbs higher.
“Yes, it has to get bigger,” the 2003 US Open champion said. “She can’t defend it as often as she is having to do now. But it’s not as if there’s some technical deficiency in it. … It looks good. She looks fit.”
More than anything, Roddick believes Jovic already possesses many of the qualities that are difficult to teach.
“She’s a grown up,” he said. “I don’t know how this goes the other way. Like I don’t know how it just doesn’t keep progressing. Obviously nothing’s a straight line, right? But generally you feel like she’s going to just keep going up based on the factors that we can see.”
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