Jovic 'trending in the right direction' after upsetting Anisimova at Queen's

LONDON -- After scoring the finest win of her career at the HSBC Championships, Iva Jovic warned that even better is to come.

The 18-year-old No. 6 seed upset No. 2 seed Amanda Anisimova, the 2025 runner-up, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to score the first Top 5 victory of her career.

"Every match I feel more confident on the grass," Jovic said afterwards. "I have to keep working on my serve, my return -- the first couple of shots in the point are super important on grass. But it's trending in the right direction. Just stacking up the matches."

Trending in the right direction is something Jovic has done at speed throughout her young career. Two years ago, she was the 2024 Wimbledon girls' doubles champion alongside Tyra Caterina Grant. Last year, the grass season was the site of an important career milestone -- Jovic broke the Top 100 for the first time after capturing the Ilkley WTA 125 title, then went on to qualify for the Wimbledon main draw.

Now, she's embedded herself in the Top 20 after a season that's featured a maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal run at the Australian Open and four tour-level semifinals, including this week at Queen's. But despite how rapidly she's risen, Jovic is having little problem in living up to her new status.

Against Anisimova, Jovic took on one of the purest ball-strikers on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz in a battle of all-out offense, and came out on top. Anisimova had the edge in outright power -- she tallied 29 winners to Jovic's 17 -- but the teenager managed to keep her game watertight with only 15 unforced errors compared to her compatriot's 39.

Jovic also displayed impressive composure in her ability to reset. Time and again, she shrugged off potential turning points. After losing a marathon eight-deuce third game in which she'd missed four points for a double break lead, Jovic saved one against her in the subsequent game and tightened her grip omn the first set.

A spate of double faults got the second set off to a poor start, but despite quickly finding herself 5-0 down, Jovic continued to problem-solve. She came to the net, she unleashed on return and, although Anisimova served it out at the second time of asking, Jovic gained enough momentum to seize an early break in the third set. From there, despite Anisimova coming up with some superb net plays of her own as she battled hard, Jovic managed to keep her nose in front.

"She doesn't give you a lot of rhythm, because she goes big very early in the points," Jovic -- who had practised with Anisimova before, but never played her -- said of the matchup. "On grass there's not much ability to play defense. I had to accept the fact that there wasn't going to be a lot of rhythm and try to just beat her to the punch by changing direction and being as offensive as possible. I lost my way in the second set and she drew level, but I'm glad I was able to reset just in time."

Jovic will face either home hope Emma Raducanu or lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova as she bids to reach her third career tour-level final. Earlier on Friday, both Raducanu and Rakhimova completed their second-round matches, which had been held over after Thursday's full washout of play. Raducanu defeated No. 7 seed Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-2, while Rakhimova battled for 2 hours and 51 minutes to overcome wild card Harriet Dart 5-7, 6-1, 7-5.