Iva Jovic delivered a 4th Rd. masterclass at the Australian Open today, destroying Yulia Putintseva 6-0 6-1. Almost any stat you wish to list, was well in favour of the 18-year-old American, who is into the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time.
This is only her sixth appearance in a major, and at the moment, it looks like she’s been doing it for years. Jovic oozes poise, and confidence, without any the swagger or arrogance.
Despite coming into the event as a seeded player for the first time, Jovic wasn’t expecting to go quite so well.
“I definitely exceeded my hopes and expectations for this tournament, so hopefully I can keep the winning going.”
After getting blown off the court at the Australian Open last year, by Elena Rybakina, Jovic worked hard, on both her game, and physicality. The results paid off in a big way, as she lifted her ranking from 191 twlelve months ago.
“I think I have done a good job of just taking all those losses into positives and being able to learn from them. So I feel like I’ve gotten physically a lot fitter, a lot stronger, and my game has a lot more versatility now, I think.
I just have a great team around me, which helps a lot to keep getting better.”
In her break-out season of 2025, Jovic won a W100 on the ITF Tour, a WTA 125 event in the UK, and the big one – the WTA 500 Guadalajara Open. After wrapping up the year in early November, Jovic wasn’t resting on her laurels, using the 2 month break to improve her game.
“I think there was a couple of specific things I was working on. There was a lot of physical stuff in the gym, getting stronger, getting faster, quicker. A couple of technical tweaks with my ground strokes with my serve, which took time as well.
I took a pretty long pre-season, so I had a lot of time to get everything done. And there was a lot of long days, but it’s definitely starting to click now. And hopefully I can keep improving as the year goes on.”
Whatever she did is definitely working. January isn’t done yet, and Jovic has already made the semi-finals of Auckland, the final of Hobart, and she finds herself in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, about to face off against Aryna Sabalenka.
“I’m just excited. You know, I’m in the quarters, which is amazing for me. So, you know, you’re going to play one of the best players at this stage of the tournament. That’s what you want.
I’m just trusting the level that I have been able to put out, and hopefully that will be enough.
You never know kind of how the year is going to start, and obviously I had my hopes to start well and win a lot of matches.
But you just never know when everything is going to click. It’s really nice to be getting good results this early in the season, and hopefully I can keep going and winning some more.”
Jovic’s big scalp of the tournament so far, was Jasmine Paolini, whom she lost to at the US Open last year. This time though, Jovic had a little extra help in the form of some advice from Novak Djokovic.
“It was pretty incredible. He gave me some very attentive tips for my game and something I can try to incorporate into this match that I just played.
So that was one of the things in the forefront of my mind, because I think when Novak gives you some advice, you follow it.
It was just to open up the court a little bit better, to not rush into the shots all the time, find some more width.
So I tried to do that, and it ended well. I’m just going to try to keep listening to Novak.
It was amazing. I mean, he’s so intelligent and smart and really wants to help the younger generation. I’m really grateful to have that advice. Hopefully I’ll speak with him more and listen to his advice.”
If Jovic can continue this trajectory, the sky really is the limit. We’ll get a very good indication of where she’s at against the number 1 player in the world. The way Jovic has been playing though, she will give a very good account of herself.
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