Jovic outlasted the fellow young tennis sensation from the Philippines in an epic three-hour showdown on Saturday to book a meeting with fourth-seeded former champion Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n
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The 14th-seed Jovic won five of the last six games for a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 triumph over 17th-seed Eala after three hours and three minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat felt like a marathon, and I felt like I lost my sanity five times over to win that match,\u201d Jovic said. \u201cBut it\u2019s really worth it for this feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two of the top rising stars of women\u2019s tennis made their Arthur Ashe Stadium debut a memorable battle that featured 17 service breaks in 33 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat match, definitely the way it finished, deserved that court,\u201d Jovic said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt literally took everything to somehow squeeze my way through that.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the emerging US tennis star\u2019s win was sealed, her Filipina friend went around the court to congratulate her instead of waiting at the net as players usually do at the end of tennis matches.<\/p>\n
When Jovic was asked about Eala\u2019s gesture in her post-match news conference, the American was moved to tears and said it showed her friend\u2019s character.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says a lot about her as a person,\u201d Jovic said while wiping away tears. \u201cI\u2019m gonna start crying, but it says a lot about her as a person to be able to do that after that type of match and still come over to hug me and wish me all the best. And even in the locker room behind closed doors \u2026 so that just says a lot about her and her character. Yeah, she\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jovic, 18, and Eala, 21, are friends and sometimes doubles partners, knowing each other\u2019s skills and style well. That helped produce seven service breaks in the first 11 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m usually not one that shows that many emotions, but this one really meant a lot to me. It\u2019s everything to have another match here at the US Open,\u201d Jovic said.<\/p>\n
That match will be against compatriot Gauff, the 2023 US Open and 2025 French Open champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to be more than happy to just bring this fight and this energy, and whatever happens I can leave with my head high,\u201d Jovic said.<\/p>\n
![\"Iva](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AP26249090280287-1788689966.jpg\")
Jovic and Eala embrace at the end of the match [Frank Franklin II\/AP]\u2018Put on a show\u2019<\/p>\n
Jovic broke four times to win the first set but was broken three times by left-hander Eala to drop the second.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe level was absolutely incredible from both sides,\u201d Jovic said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely put on a show, and it literally took everything to get through that \u2026 losing my earrings, falling literally flat-out on the floor, cuts on my knees, mental breakdowns,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Eala admitted: \u201cI had my chances. I\u2019m happy with the match in general. Of course there is disappointment in losing, but trying to see the positive side. It was a really good match. The level was really high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left everything out there. I fought through the ups and downs \u2026 What I know for a fact is that I fought, so I\u2019m happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A quarterfinalist at this year\u2019s Australian Open, Jovic won her first WTA title last year in Guadalajara at age 17.<\/p>\n
She beat Eala at the French Open and Queen\u2019s Club in London earlier this season in their prior meetings, but that was before Eala won her first WTA title at Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe played an outrageous level tonight. She was serving very good. She was showing a lot more versatility with her returns,\u201d Jovic said of Eala.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s playing some of the best tennis in the world right now, so it\u2019s no doubt it takes a hell of an effort to beat her.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Philippines'](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AFP__20260906__C7G72WA__v1__HighRes__TennisUsaOpen-1788689960.jpg\")
The Philippines\u2019 Alexandra Eala waves to the crowd as she walks off the court [Leonardo Munoz\/AFP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iva Jovic outlasted the fellow young tennis sensation from the Philippines, Alex Eala, in an epic three-hour showdown.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[6109,49,48,2053,457,82,593,772,1690],"class_list":["post-885630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-asia-pacific","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-philippines","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885630","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=885630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}