Ahead of Charleston debut, Jovic is ready for first full clay-court swing
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Growing up in the United States, Iva Jovic did not see a clay court until she was 14 years old.
The now 18-year old World No. 16 on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz is set to make compete in her first full clay-court swing, and will debut at the Credit One Charleston Open later this week.
"I didn't know how to slide at all (on clay)," Jovic laughed during media day in Charleston. "I didn't know anything about it. I worked a lot in the past two years to get more comfortable on the clay, and I think now I'm in a much better place."
As it'll be the American's first appereance in South Carolina's Lowcountry, she'll play on the signature green clay courts. Last year, Jovic played just the Colsanitas Cup in Bogota and Roland Garros during the WTA's clay-court swing as she was still climbing her way through her breakout 2025 season. She reached just the second round at each event.
"It's really cool," Jovic said. "Obviously, last year I didn't get to do -- I played Bogota and I played French Open, some ITF, so this is the first time to do the whole official thing, which is exciting, and I've been working hard this past week after Miami to get used to the clay. It's obviously a little different with the movement and everything.
"Charleston is so beautiful. This tournament is amazing. It's my first time here as we've mentioned, but everyone has nice things to say, and I see what the hype is about. It's a really great place."
After cracking into the top 20 with a quarterfinal run at the Australian Open, Jovic now playing a true, first full-year on the WTA Tour. An early part of the her 2025 season was spent with a mixture of ITF and WTA Tour events, including her lone 2025 appearance on green clay when she won an ITF 100K tournament in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Jovic said she enjoys playing the green clay, as it plays faster than the more common red clay on tour, and it helps her transition fully from hard court to the clay surface.
"I really like the green clay, actually," Jovic said. "Last year, I played one tournament on the green clay, I won it. So ITF event, slightly different than the tournaments nowadays, but I like it. I think it's quite faster than the red clay, so it's a good little transition to go from the hard to the green to the red.
"Us Americans usually we play well on the green. I think a lot of Americans won this tournament. We're more used to it. We don't have a lot of red here."
Jovic is correct in that regard, as the last two winners -- Jessica Pegula and Danielle Collins -- are from the United States. Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens, who won the event in 2019 and 2016, respectively, are also in this year's field. That's in addition to legends Serena Williams and Chris Evert, who both took home the title multiple times.
As the No. 4 seed in Charleston, Jovic has a bye into the second round. During her roundtable at media day, she explained she's hoping to showcase her variety on the clay court, as it's not a frequent surface for her. It's been the primary objective for her as opposed to reaching a certain metric by the end of the swing or year.
"Right now, I'm a lot about variety," Jovic said. "A lot about mixing in some different plays, especially on the clay. It's slower. You need to find different ways of getting people off the court, maybe some slices, maybe some more angles playing around with your serve a little bit more. Different spins, different return positions.
"Just being a little bit more unpredictable."