Iva Jovic impresses Barbora Krejcikova after Czech comes through Cincinnati encounter

MASON, Ohio—Barbora Krejcikova had a few simple but encouraging words for Iva Jovic after their third-round contest here on Tuesday.

“Good match,” Krejcikova said, nodding and putting her arm out toward Jovic. “Keep going.”

“I wish I played like her when I was 17,” Krejcikova said with a laugh a few minutes later. “I feel like she’s [going to have] a great future ahead of her. I’m really happy I found my way through.”

Krejcikova was so happy, in fact, that she walked over to her team, pumped her fists, let out a scream, and gave them all high-fives. That isn’t a reaction you normally see from a multiple Grand Slam champion after a third-round win. But there were a couple of reasons for the 29-year-old to be especially satisfied with this victory.

💻📱Click here to stream a replay of Barbora Krejcikova vs. Iva Jovic on TennisChannel.com

First, the oft-injured Czech has been injured again in 2025. This year her back and right thigh limited her to just 10 matches before Cincinnati, of which she won five. Her Wimbledon title defense ended after just three matches. This is the way it was has gone for Krejcikova for much of this decade: her two brilliant Slam-title runs, at Roland Garros in 2021 and Wimbledon in 2024, have been followed by long stretches in the wilderness and on the sidelines.

Healthy again, she sounds ready to climb the mountain, even if she has to do it from scratch. Krejcikova doesn’t have the type of game that snaps back into place easily. She doesn’t win with one weapon, like a serve or a forehand, or with grinding defense. She has to weave multiple shots and spins—from low slices to on-the-rise drives to touch shots around the net—together into a logical whole.

“Going point by point,” is how Krejcikova describes her mentality at the moment. “I like all of my shots. It’s very nice when I can put them together, and they’re making sense.”

The second reason for Krejickova to be pumped about this early-round win is that it came against a 17-year-old. No veteran pro, no matter how established and successful, enjoys the prospect of losing to a teenage rookie. Look no farther than Naomi Osaka’s get-me-out-of-here reaction to surrendering her lead against 18-year-old Victoria Mboko last week in Montreal.

Jovic is a native of Torrance, Calif., and the daughter of a Serbian father and Croatian mother. She may be the first pro we’ve seen who is so young that she didn’t decide to pursue tennis seriously until Covid hit. With team sports closed off, she focused on the one she could play. By 2021, she was good enough as a 14-year-old to win the Orange Bowl. Since then, Jovic has been the No. 1-ranked U.S. junior, and No. 2 in the world. She has already won matches at three of the majors, and reached No. 89 in the rankings.

I wish I played like her when I was 17. Barbora Krejcikova on Iva Jovic

Like Serena Williams and Osaka, Jovic is the younger of two tennis-playing sisters. Her older sister, Mia, plays for UCLA, and Iva thought of joining her there. She said it wasn’t easy to venture onto the tour instead, but once you’re in the Top 100 at 17, there’s no going back. Iva describes herself as someone who likes to take the ball early and make her opponents feel pressure. Her forehand, which she can hit with topspin or flatten out to end points, in particular is a weapon.

Now, of course, comes the hard part: Establishing herself as a pro. It’s not always as easy and glamorous as Mboko made it look last week.

“It’s just such a different mentality; in the juniors, people kind of give away points a little bit more or sometimes they’re not mentally as locked in,” Jovic told the Cincinnati Open’s website this week. “Here, you can tell that everyone’s fighting for every single point and no matter what the score is, they’re not going to go away.”

“If you let up a little bit, it can be all over. That’s what I’ve been getting used to.”

Jovic’s words proved prophetic in the third set on Tuesday. She had been the superior player in the second set, and when she she reached 15-30 on Krejcikova’s serve to start the third, the momentum appeared to be with her, as errors flowed from the Czech’s racquet in the extreme mid-day heat. At 30-30, Krejcikova hit a backhand that looked like it might go for another error, and give Jovic a break point; instead it caught the outer edge of the sideline. From there, Krejcikova cut out the mistakes, and found the range on her heavy crosscourt forehand.

That was a shot that Jovic had no answer for all day. At 5'7", she was a little undersized compared to Krejcikova. When she had a look at a forehand, Jovic could rocket it, but her second serve was attackable, and deep balls from Krejickova troubled her.

Despite that, Jovic didn’t cave or get negative or throw a tantrum—she never lost her intense, wide-eyed focus on every ball. Jovic made Krejcikova earn it, saving six match points at 2-5, before finally double faulting on the seventh. If Jovic didn’t earn a victory, she earned her opponent’s respect at the net.

Krejcikova was pleased to advance, but she’s keeping her expectations low for a Slam champ. Asked on Tennis Channel how close she is to her top level, she said she wouldn’t even hazard a guess, and wasn’t sure when, or even if, she might get there.

“You (want) to play great tennis all the time, which is impossible,” Krejcikova said with a smile. “I’m happy I’m here.”