Iva Jovic is beginning to make a name for herself after winning her first ever WTA title in Guadalajara.
Jovic has now matched a Coco Gauff record after beating Emiliana Arango to win the WTA 500 tournament.
The American teenager has received many messages after this win, including Jessica Pegula reacting to Jovic’s victory.
Despite all the comparisons to American players, Jovic’s idol is actually Novak Djokovic.
Photo by Robert Prange/Getty ImagesWhat Iva Jovic said it was like to meet Novak Djokovic for the first time
Jovic has a Serbian father and therefore already has a connection to 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic.
The 17-year-old has spoken about how much she looks up to Djokovic before, and at the most recent US Open Jovic revealed that she actually met him at Wimbledon earlier this year.
When speaking to Tennis Channel, Jovic revealed that former top 10 player and head of USTA Player Development’s women’s program, Kathy Rinaldi, introduced her to Djokovic back at Wimbledon and she noticed something about her idol in the short time they spent together.
“She will go for it. That’s one thing about Kathy. I love her so much,” said Jovic. “We were practicing on the indoor courts at Wimbledon and he just walked in to a court close to us. His son was playing, and Kathy was like, ‘Let’s go up to him right now!’ I was like, ‘Kathy!’
“He just wished me luck and told me to keep working. It was kind of just a little bit of an introduction. I met Jelena there too, and his sons were playing. It was just so cool.
“There was nothing super specific said but just the way he talks, he has a thing about himself where you can tell that he’s great. Not even seeing him on the tennis court, he has that presence, which is super cool.”
Who did Iva Jovic say she preferred out of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner?
Despite Djokovic being her idol, the current top two players on the ATP Tour by some way are Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, having won the last eight consecutive Grand Slam titles.
Due to his exciting and unpredictable game style, world number one Alcaraz is often a crowd favourite, but Jovic actually admitted she preferred watching Sinner.
“Right now, I’m having such a blast with the Carlos-Sinner rivalry,” Jovic said at the US Open. “I will say Sinner is my favorite. I like watching him play, so I guess he could be my model right now. I’ll take anything that he does!”
Jovic would like to play like Sinner, but she previously told the BNP Paribas Open that she also took inspiration from Wimbledon semifinalist Belinda Bencic.
“She takes the ball so early,” said Jovic. “And her footwork is very … cutting the angles, so she just makes her opponents feel suffocated. That’s what I would like to try to do.”
After winning the Guadalajara Open, Jovic has now climbed up to world number 36 in the WTA rankings and is the youngest player ranked inside the top 50.