Iva Jovic and Learner Tien, once autograph-seekers at Indian Wells, return as ones to watch

Learner Tien and Iva Jovic’s earliest memories of Indian Wells are remarkably similar. Like thousands of other young Southern California tennis fanatics, each came to the sport’s desert oasis with their families as kids. The Tiens drove from their home in Irvine, the Jovics from their house in Torrance. Both trips take roughly two hours—depending on Rt. 10 traffic, of course.

But the two budding prodigies arrived with different priorities.

Jovic, whose father immigrated to the U.S. from Serbia, wanted an autograph from—who else?—Novak Djokovic. To get it, she waited in the sun for the great man to finish a practice session that dragged on for two and a half hours. Jovic, citing her shyness, says that’s still as close as she’s ever been to having a conversation with her hero.

For Tien, the goal at Indian Wells was simpler: He wanted the famous frozen lemonades that were sold on the grounds. As many as he could get. The memory of their deliciousness apparently never went away. “Those things are one of the greatest things ever,” he told ATPtour.com last year. In between trips to the lemonade stand, Tien was also able to snag a signature from—who else?—Novak Djokovic, as he walked out of Centre Court.

“I was one of the people hanging over the wall,” Tien said.

In the minds of Jovic, now 18, and Tien, now 20, these probably feel like ancient, blurry childhood memories. For those of us who are a little older, they probably don’t seem that far in the past at all.

Jovic may be the first pro we’ve seen who didn’t devote herself to tennis full-time until the pandemic struck in 2020. All of her team sports were suddenly off-limits, so she went with the socially-distanced activity that she was allowed to do. It’s hard to argue with her choice. A year later, at 14, she won Orange Bowl. Four years after that, she was in the Top 50. Sometimes, even now, she can’t quite believe the places she finds herself.

“It’s just surreal to be on this court,” Jovic said after winning her debut match in Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open in January. “This is definitely what I dreamed of as a kid. I still feel like a kid.”

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Tien, meanwhile, may be the first pro I’ve heard say he has only the vaguest recollection of watching Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play, when he saw them at Indian Wells a decade ago. When Tien joined the tour in 2025, he sounded every bit like the 19-year-old he was. Asked what he did with his downtime, he said he either spent it playing Fortnite with his friend and fellow pro Alex Michselsen, or “lying in bed, doing nothing.”

But tennis happens fast, and no matter how young Tien and Jovic are, they’re already successors to a long line of great players from California. Among those legends are a number who were also the children of immigrants, including Pancho Gonzalez, Pete Sampras, and Michael Chang.

Tien, whose parents fled South Vietnam, has a sister named Justice. Both kids get their names from their parents’ professions; their mother, Huyen, is a teacher; their father, Khuong Dan, is a lawyer. Jovic’s parents, Bojan and Jelena, are pharmacists who moved from Serbia and Croatia, respectively. Iva’s older sister, Mia, plays tennis at UCLA, and she thought of joining her there before turning pro.

Tien and Jovic are as chill as you’d expect two college-age Californians to be. But deeper down there may be a drive and work ethic that they took from their parents. You can see it in their physical stature. Tien is 5’11 and Jovic is 5’7; both are on the smaller side in today’s pro game. Neither has an overpowering serve or a fearsome ground-stroke weapon. But both have found ways to continue defying their size.

For Jovic that has meant listening to her father’s early advice to play “the right way”—i.e., with first-strike aggression. To do that effectively at the pro level has meant “getting stronger, getting faster, getting quicker.” That’s what she and her coach, Tom Gutteridge, set out to do after the 2025 season. She says she made a “Christmas list” of wishes for her game that included using more variety and making her second serve less predictable.

“I took a pretty long pre-season, so I had a lot of time to get everything done,” Jovic said in January. “There was a couple of specific things I was working on. There was a lot of physical stuff in the gym, a couple of technical tweaks with my ground strokes, with my serve, which took time as well.”

That work paid off right away in 2026. She made a final in Hobart, and her first major quarterfinal in Melbourne, and she’ll come to Indian Wells with a 13-4 record and a ranking of No. 18.

A year ago, she could be bossed around by stronger and more experienced opponents. So far this season, she has done more of the bossing, particularly with her forehand, and shown an improved ability to counterpunch out of the corners. One commentator was even moved to describe her game as “brute force.” Those probably aren’t the first words that come to mind when you see this easygoing teen, or hear her talk, but the more brute force she can generate, the better.

Tien, perhaps not surprisingly, has had a similar focus in his second season. As a rookie, his consistency, his competitive smarts, his smooth ball striking, and his thoughtful way of putting together points were all obvious, and they landed him in the Top 30. By February of this year, Tien was up to No. 23, 15 spots ahead of Joao Fonseca, the 19-year-old Brazilian who was touted as the best in their class.

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Yet Tien needed to do more, especially with his lefty serve. Last summer, he enlisted Chang’s coaching help. A fellow undersized grinder, Chang was an obvious fit in some ways, but was he the guy to help beef up Tien’s serve? They’ve worked together on improving his ball toss, his fitness, and his tactics. And as with Jovic, the results have come. He also made the quarterfinals in Australia, and a semi last week in Delray Beach.

Tien says what he gets most from Chang is positivity, even when he’s down. That means something coming from a Grand Slam champ.

“In general I think he’s very encouraging,” he says of Chang. “He’s never getting down whether I’m playing well or whether I’m playing poorly. He’s always just consistently just giving me good energy, a lot of support.”

Just don’t ask Tien to talk about what Chang was like as a player.

“There’s not that much video from way back then,” he said with a laugh in Melbourne.

Jovic and Tien will each arrive in Indian Wells with a career-high ranking. Tien will also be part of the doubles draw; he’s playing with his odd-couple rival Daniil Medvedev. It will be a homecoming for both Californians, and surely a little surreal for them to be on other side of the autograph line.

Still, some things won’t be all that different. Maybe, if they have time, Jovic can strike top that conversation with Djokovic, and Tien can find his way to a frozen lemonade.