Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters had a deep dive dialogue on Iva Jovic after the 18-year-old defended her Guadalajara title final week.
Chris OddoSeptember 22, 20263 minute learn
At 18, Iva Jovic is already exhibiting a knack for performing – and taking part in – effectively past her years.
The American efficiently defended her Guadalajara title over the weekend, defeating Peyton Stearns 6-4, 6-2 within the last to enhance to an ideal 9-0 on the occasion. Jovic, who gained her maiden WTA title in Guadalajara as a 17-year-old final season, didn’t drop a set throughout this yr’s run.
The triumph lifted the Torrance, California native to a career-high No. 13 within the WTA rankings and made her the youngest lady to efficiently defend a WTA title since Maria Sharapova at Birmingham in 2005.
For four-time main champion Kim Clijsters, nevertheless, it isn’t simply Jovic’s outcomes that stand out.
Clijsters joined Andy Roddick on the Served podcast and pointed to {the teenager}’s maturity as one of many first issues that caught her consideration.
“I believe the very first thing that stood out for me was, previous to the Billie Jean King Cup once they performed in opposition to Belgium, was her maturity on court docket,” Clijsters stated. “I believe for a participant of her age, she was so mature, even in her on-court interviews and press conferences. I believe that stood out for me straight away.”
The previous world No. 1 has additionally been impressed by Jovic’s skill to use relentless stress from the baseline.
“Her skill to simply form of keep on prime of the baseline, she’s so match, strikes rather well back and forth,” Clijsters stated. “I really feel like there’s a constant stress that she’s capable of put onto the alternative facet of the web. And that’s actually onerous for lots of gamers to beat.”
There’s nonetheless loads of room for enchancment, significantly on serve. Clijsters believes Jovic can develop into stronger and lift each her first-serve share and the effectiveness of her second serve.
However she sees the uncooked materials for one thing a lot larger.
“She has every little thing to develop into actually, actually good,” Clijsters stated.
Roddick agreed, figuring out the function an space that might want to develop as Jovic climbs greater.
“Sure, it has to get larger,” the 2003 US Open champion stated. “She will’t defend it as typically as she is having to do now. But it surely’s not as if there’s some technical deficiency in it. … It seems good. She seems match.”
Greater than something, Roddick believes Jovic already possesses lots of the qualities which might be troublesome to show.
“She’s a grown up,” he stated. “I don’t know the way this goes the opposite approach. Like I don’t know the way it simply doesn’t preserve progressing. Clearly nothing’s a straight line, proper? However usually you’re feeling like she’s going to simply preserve going up primarily based on the components that we will see.”
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