American tennis player Iva Jovic has just made history with her first win at the US Open this week, putting her firmly in the spotlight as a rising star.

The 16-year-old managed to oust 2023 Australian Open semifinalist Magda Linette and become the youngest American woman to win a main-draw match at the US Open in 24 years.

The teen remained humble in the face of her remarkable win, telling media she was “surprised, but not surprised,” about the result.

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“I just had a plan about what I was going to do before we started, and there weren’t that many needs for crazy adjustments, because it was going well,” she shared.

“So just kind of sticking to that.”

Her latest victory means she will be progressing to the second round of the final Grand Slam of the year, being pitted against Russian tennis player Ekaterina Alexandrova.

“I want to be the best that I can be,” she said of her future hopes and dreams. “Just get better every day, honestly. Just keep working. I’m on a good path, but there’s a lot more to do.”

So who is the teen making waves in the tennis world? Here’s all you need to know.

Who is Iva Jovic?

Jovic was born to Serbian and Croatian parents Bojan and Jelena, who immigrated to the US before she and her older sister Mia, were born.

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“I definitely look up to my parents. They work really hard with their jobs and to come to this country having to start from scratch and then work their way up, so I’ve learned you know you have to earn everything you have you have to work hard and just have to be persistent,” she told Tennis Channel.

Though she does not come from a tennis-playing background, her family has had a huge impact on her journey in the sport.

She got her introduction to tennis when playing with her sister on the rooftop of their house from the age of five. The athlete – who is originally from Torrance, California, but now resides in Los Angeles – says it was one of the many sports they played, but it was the only one that stuck for both of them, with Mia also continuing to play at her university, UCLA.

“I would always play sets against her try to beat her and never really succeed so I’m grateful that I had her to look up to and to practice with.”

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They first played for fun, but when the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns occurred, the tennis courts on the rooftop of their apartment complex were their only option for some fresh air and exercise.

When she “started having better results… that’s when I decided that I’ll just stick to tennis.

“It definitely wasn’t the goal when I first started playing,” she said of her burgeoning career.

“I kind of just got into it to have some fun get some exercise, and then for a while it was like ‘OK, maybe we can get a college scholarship out of this, that would be very nice’ and then now it’s kind of ‘Wow we can maybe make a career out of this’, so [it] has definitely evolved over the years and it’s exciting.”

Iva Jovic’s coach and playing strategy

The teen has been coached by five-time NCAA champion Peter Smith since she was 12, but it was her father’s advice that she stuck to throughout her early years.

“The whole philosophy in my family that my dad kind of started was always playing the right way and now [that] is – in my family – considered being aggressive, taking the ball early and just trying to be the initiator having the match be on your terms.

“So that was how I played growing up and I lost a lot of matches by just making unforced errors and just making mistakes with that style of play,” she admitted.

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“But the hope was that eventually those shots and that strategy will start executing better and that is ultimately [it was] what I think helped me translate and get my game better later on.

Her coach agreed, adding, “It was really genius by Bojan to to have that attitude and him not knowing that but he spared those early results for the Improvement and betterment of your game later.”

Iva Jovic’s tennis career

It was this strategy that led to her victory in her junior career, most notably winning the 2023 Junior Billie Jean Cup with Tyra Grant and Alanis Hamilton as the American team.

Along with Grant, she also won the final of the girls’ doubles draw at the 2024 Australian Open, not dropping a single set in the tournament.

They also found success with the girls’ doubles title at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, but narrowly missed out on winning the 2024 French Open, having reached the final. She is the No. 5 ranked junior in the world.

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Now she has begun her professional career with a bang. After making her debut as a wildcard at the $15k SoCal Pro Circuit Jack Kramer Club event in Los Angeles – where she reached the finals – she secured victory with the $25k Ascension Project Women’s Open in Redding.

But her biggest win is on home ground. She entered the 2024 US Open after receiving wildcards for the main draw in singles and doubles, with her win in the USTA’s U18 National Championships making her the tournament’s youngest participant.

Her subsequent first Grand Slam and WTA Tour win over Linette made her the youngest American to win a women’s main-draw match at the US Open since 2000.

“It’s great, obviously, to play in the US Open and definitely the biggest tournament that I will be playing so I’m super excited as an American as well. [It’s] probably going to be a great atmosphere,” she told Tennis Channel.

“I want to win Grand Slams and get high up in the rankings,” she shared.

Iva Jovic’s acting career

The teen has even made a start in other ventures, having (almost) appeared in Oscar-nominated film, King Richard.

The then-14-year-old had a tense scene, playing the opponent who would be battling it out on the tennis court opposite the young version of Venus Williams in the biopic of her father, tennis legend Richard Williams.

Jovic and her sister were recruited by renowned Torrance coach Courtney Hance to audition for extra roles at their local club. Though they were both credited in the film, Jovic’s scene was unfortunately left on the cutting room floor.

“In the acting part, I was a girl playing against Venus when she was younger, I think it was sectionals,” she recalled to ZooTennis.

“I was really upset because I was losing, and I’m getting super mad at my mum, saying like, ‘I tried, don’t be mad at me.’ I’m just being a big brat, that’s what it is.

“But it just didn’t make the movie. It was disappointing, but that’s how it goes.”

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She shared the unexpected process of filming the scene, with the teen realising, “It’s a huge amount of time, energy and money that goes into making a movie,” Jovic said. “I was filming one scene and it took like an hour probably.

“It was crazy the amount of effort by everyone, the producers, everyone, to make just one tiny scene. You never know until you’re there how long that really takes.”

Though she didn’t make the cut, she was able to spot her sister in the film.

“I could pick her out in the movie, she had a couple of seconds,” Jovic said. “So that was cool. But she was also like ‘I’m so bad,’ but still, to be included was good.”

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