{"id":423832,"date":"2026-01-21T15:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423832\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:12:07","slug":"18-year-old-iva-jovic-storms-past-aussie-favourite-priscilla-hon-as-she-breaks-new-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423832\/","title":{"rendered":"18-year-old Iva Jovic storms past Aussie favourite Priscilla Hon as she breaks new ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iva Jovic<\/a>‘s Australian Open<\/a> continues without slip with the 18-year-old again rising to the occasion on the big stage to breeze past Australian wildcard Priscilla Hon.Already a WTA title winner at 17, Jovic<\/a> is continuing to
\nlive the dream of a young tennis prospect. She looked imperious out on court
\nagainst Katie Volynets, unveiling after the match that she was almost too relaxed.<\/a><\/p>\n

This looked to have continued into her second round tie,
\nwith her not fazed by the challenge of facing an Aussie on Rod Laver Arena,
\nshowing what incredible mentality and composure she bears.<\/p>\n

She has started 2025 like a rocket, storming all the way to the
\nsemi-finals of the ASB Classic before losing to the eventual winner Elina
\nSvitolina. She made it one step further in the Hobart International but was
\nunable to get the better of qualifier Elisabetta Cocciaretto in a surprising
\nupset.<\/p>\n

While it looks unlikely Jovic can go this deep at the Australian
\nOpen, she is showing all the credentials needed to be a top tennis player.<\/p>\n

Jovic in command as third round beckons<\/p>\n

The first set was as one sided as you can get, with Jovic
\nsteamrolling her opponent. She breezed to a hold to love to kick off
\nproceedings before nicking a break moments later, with Hon\u2019s resistance already
\ncrumbling in these early stages.<\/p>\n

The Aussie managed to get a first game on the board to spot
\nthe ongoing Jovic rampage, but the 18-year-old continued to edge further away
\nout of sight, holding to make it 4-1 before breaking to love to set up a
\nserve-winning opportunity. This was taken with no hiccups, wit 27 minutes all
\nthe time needed to grab a set advantage which put her halfway to a maiden major
\nthird round appearance.<\/p>\n

It looked likely that a familiar scenario would once again
\nshow itself, but Jovic was unable to break as Hon got herself slightly ahead as
\nthe second set commenced. She then flipped the script and broke the Jovic serve,
\nand had looked like she was set to race into a 3-0 lead when going 40-0 up.
\nDespite this, Jovic came fighting back and got the set all square. As the clock
\nstruck midnight in Melbourne, Jovic won five points in a row to secure a
\ncrucial break.<\/p>\n

Jovic had been pretty clinical with her break opportunities, and this trend prolonged with the upmost of fortune as the ball clips the net and to the groans of the crowd harmlessly bobbles over. The match would soon be all over. On the day, Hon was not able to match the immense quality of Jovic, but it was still a very positive tournament, reaching the second round for the first time since 2020. For Jovic, a third round tie against two-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini is her next test in a repeat of their clash in the 2025 US Open.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iva Jovic‘s Australian Open continues without slip with the 18-year-old again rising to the occasion on the big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[7641,49,48,74101,82,593,4306],"class_list":["post-423832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-australian-open","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-iva-jovic","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}