Iva Jovic excited American tennis fans with her spellbinding play throughout the 2026 Australian Open.
The American, tipped to become world number one by Novak Djokovic, defeated Katy Volynets, Priscilla Hon, Jasmine Paolini and Yulia Putintseva on her way to the quarter-finals in Melbourne.
There, she lost to Aryna Sabalenka, who praised the youngster’s resilience in her post-match press conference.
Following her impressive run in Australia, Jovic has achieved a career-high ranking of world number 20, and few would bet against the American rising further up the rankings throughout the course of this year.
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Jovic – known for her excellent discipline on the Tour – is not one to sit on her laurels; even after producing some of her best tennis in Australia.
In a recent interview, the American revealed what she is working on in training to further improve her game ahead of the Middle-Eastern swing of the WTA Tour.
Iva Jovic is working on her serve in training
In an interview with the Tennis Channel on Monday, Jovic revealed her training focus ahead of the next round of tournaments.
The 18-year-old also emphasised the importance of scheduling frequent training blocks; demonstrating Jovic’s dedication to her craft.
She said: “It is nice to have that feeling of ‘I can play’ and if I have a bad week or want to play more, it’s nice to have that freedom to play mentally. It’s also good for the ranking opportunity if you can play more.
“But I want to try and train and make sure I am getting a lot of blocks in where I can actually get better, because it’s difficult when you are just hopping through the tournaments every week, so I will try and find time for that as well.
“The big thing I am working on right now is the serve. I think a lot of these players at the top of the game, they hold serve.
“It’s not easy to break them, so you need to be sharp with those serve plus one patterns and be able to hang on to your service games because you are not going to get looks to break every time.”
Jovic is currently scheduled to have an extended training block as she is not competing in any WTA events over the next two weeks.
Jovic is not participating in Ostrava, Abu Dhabi or Cluj this week, nor is she on the entry list for the Qatar Open the following week.
The American’s next scheduled event is the Dubai Tennis Championships: a WTA 1000 event last won by Mirra Andreeva.
As Jovic did not compete in the Dubai Tennis Championships last year, she has the opportunity to further increase her ranking with a strong run at the event.
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Jovic talks about her journey and what she needs to improve
In the same interview, Jovic discussed how her mindset has evolved as she has climbed the WTA rankings.
“So far everything I have done in tennis is about climbing levels,” Jovic said. “In the beginning, playing someone top 300 in the WTA was intimidating, so now the intimidating factor is playing the number one and the top spot.
“I think it’s the same thing. This is the different level and that is what I have had to do through my entire career. It has not been that long yet, but through all the juniors and everything you have to adapt to the higher level and adjust to it.
“I think what it is about now is being able to have those quick fire points, to be really sharp at the beginning of the point. There is not a lot of time to get into it, so you need to really know what you want to do and have a plan and execute it.
“I think I need to just get better at those first couple of punches, so I can get into the point more often.”
