It took more than a day for Iva Jovic to finish her first-round match. Took more than a day for the No. 14 seed to send a forehand winner down the line, turn toward the crowd, pump her fist and roar Wednesday at the Grandstand. She needed to wait. And wait. And wait.
But after weather suspended her match, Jovic, just as the night session began on a day mostly filled with second-round matchups, completed her first match, fighting off unseeded Magdalena Frech 7-5, 6-3 and flashing, again, why the 18-year-old has already entered the conversation as one of the next great American women’s tennis players.
Earlier this year, Jovic became the youngest woman to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open since Venus Williams. In 2024 at the U.S. Open, she became the youngest American woman to win a match in the main draw since 2000.
And now, back in the second round at Flushing Meadows for a third consecutive year, Jovic has a chance to make her first U.S. Open run.
“It’s all these little steps up the mountain,” Peter Smith, who coached Jovic for five years starting when she was 11 years old, told The Post on Wednesday when asked about the 2024 U.S. Open win. “And she’s made them and she’s gotten to these steps and she hasn’t been overwhelmed or wowed by anything. That’s incredibly impressive.”
Jovic, Smith said, isn’t overwhelmed by the marquee stage. The Grandstand isn’t Louis Armstrong Stadium or Arthur Ashe Stadium, but it still serves as one of the U.S. Open’s major venues. In her on-court interview Wednesday, she spoke about her connection with Novak Djokovic and how he sent her a good-luck message before her first-round match. Her name has already become associated with some of the rising — and current — American stars, too.
Over time with Smith, Jovic embraced wanting to play on the baseline and stay low, and it has allowed her movement to thrive. It contributed to a rise that has already hit some major highs even though she has been a professional for only a few years.
Wednesday served as the next step for Jovic in her quest for a first Grand Slam. The rounds that follow — and any subsequent victories at Flushing Meadows — will only add to that.
“It’s a very hard sport because you’re out there by yourself and all of those little voices in your head,” Smith said. “… She’s gotten a lot of praise and talk about her. But look, I just think, I think in her brain, like, she wants it. And she’s going for it.”
