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Iva Jovic Wins Her Biggest Career Title Beating Ena Shibahara in Straight Sets For RSF Open Crown

Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. – October 6, 2024 – Iva Jovic simply knows how to win – especially when she’s playing in San Diego. For the third time this year, the 16-year-old Jovic from Torrance won a significant title just down south via the 405/5 Interstate from where she grew up on Sunday capturing the ITF World Tour W75 RSF Open.

“San Diego has been good to me this year,” said Jovic, after she beat her LA County South Bay neighbor and friend Ena Shibahara, 6-3, 6-3, to win the biggest title of her career at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club. “I guess it’s the homecourt advantage.”

It was the 10th win in a row for the unseeded Jovic coming off her second career pro title at the W35 Berkeley event last week. The victory also avenged Jovic’s previous loss to Shibahara, who represents Japan, as she fell in three sets to her in the Spring, Texas, W35 final in March. 

Jovic, one of the top junior players in the world, in March won a large ITF J300 junior tournament at the Barnes Tennis Center, in between her Australian Open and Wimbledon junior doubles titles. Jovic returned to Barnes in August to win the USTA Billie Jean King 18s Nationals and a wild card into the US Open main draw.

“I think the finals are just seeing how tough you are,” said her USTA National coach Tom Gutteridge after the match. “It’s been a long two weeks for her so naturally I’m sure she was a little bit tired. It just goes to show how much she has improved herself physically so we’re just really pretty happy.”

Still an amateur who has yet to declare her professional status, Jovic earned $7,344 for expenses and 75 ranking points with the win in the USTA Pro Circuit $60,000 event while Shibahara takes home $3,882, but more importantly 49 valuable ranking points as she continues her climb up the rankings. At the start of the year, the former UCLA All-American Shibahara decided to devote herself totally to singles saying it’s “now or never” after earning a world top 4 ranking in doubles, as well as a French Open mixed doubles title during her career.

“Yeah, it’s been a process and a journey [this year] and I’m really happy that I went after my dream,” Shibahara said. “It didn’t go my way today but there’s always lessons to be learned.”

On Tuesday, Shibahara said she will leave for Japan for the WTA 250 in Osaka and a WTA 500 in Tokyo. She said she set a goal at the start of the year of reaching the world top 200 and achieved that after qualifying and winning a round at the US Open. “Now this week I’ll be in the top 150 so I’m just really happy and going to keep it going.”

In the doubles final, the Russian duo and No. 2-seeded Maria Kononova and Maria Kozyreva took out No. 3 team of Haley Giavara and Rasheeda McAdoo, 6-2, 7-6 (4). In each of the six matches leading up to the final, both teams split sets against the opposition with each finalist team winning three matches in super tiebreakers until the final.

All four of the doubles finalists played college tennis with Kononova starring at the University of North Texas and Kozyreva at St. Mary’s College in Northern California. Giavara is a former Cal-Berkeley No. 1 and grew up in San Diego and attended Serra High while McAdoo played at Georgia Tech.

L.A. South Bay Neighbors Ena Shibahara and Iva Jovic To Play In Second Pro Final This Year At RSF Open

Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. – October 5, 2024 – Unseeded 16-year-old Iva Jovic will meet her Los Angeles County South Bay friend and neighbor Ena Shibahara in the RSF Open singles final on Sunday in a finals rematch from seven months ago won by the No. 3-seeded Shibahara.

Both players won convincing straight-set matches in the semifinals of the ITF World Tour W75 with $60,000 worth of prize money at stake in the event taking place at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club.

Torrance’s Jovic beat No. 5 seeded Lanlana Tararudee from Thailand, 6-1, 7-5, to win her ninth consecutive match while the former UCLA star Shibahara from Rancho Palos Verdes continued her dominating play this week to beat Canada’s Katherine Sebov, 6-1, 6-3. Shibahara has yet to lose a set this week, and her scorelines include two 6-1 wins, and a pair at 6-0. The 26-year-old Shibahara avenged a tough loss just one week ago to Sebov in the first round of the Templeton ITF W75 in which she lost the first set 6-0.

Considered a doubles specialist and former world No. 4 and a French Open mixed doubles champion, Shibahara is giving it a go in singles. She won four matches at the recent US Open and qualified and won her first round before falling to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

In March, Shibahara beat Jovic 6-3 in the third set in the final to win her first ITF singles title at the W35 Spring, Texas, tournament. Just last week, Jovic won her third second ITF pro title by taking the Berkeley W35 singles title.

“It was great to win last week and I had a tough first round here but was able to keep it rolling,” said Jovic, who will play one more W75 in Edmond, Okla., before training for the rest of the year with the USTA in Florida. “After Edmond I’ll take a little time off to rest and train. Then maybe a $50k in Boca Raton, and maybe Orange Bowl [junior event], but kind of winding down after Edmond.”

Jovic is still undecided on whether or not she will turn pro, wanting to keep her college eligibility in case she decides to go that route.

“I still haven’t decided [about turning pro],” she said. “I’m just keeping my options open.”

When asked if she had a bar or ranking she might reach to make that decision, the No. 290-ranked Jovic said, “Not really. I think I’ll just know when the time is right. There’s no urgency for me.”

She added: “We’ve just been working hard to develop my game and now things are clicking. We’ve been making good runs all year and so it’s nice to be winning titles and just being consistent all year.”

Former WTA player Kathy Rinaldi, the USTA’s National Coach, Women’s Tennis. has been coaching Jovic, along with her USTA national coaches, for the past two weeks. She likes what she is seeing from the prodigy.

“She’s just such a hard worker and so aggressive and has just improved in so many aspects,” Rinaldi said. “She has such a great growth mindset and she’s improved her serve and her slice and coming forward. She’s just so tough. She just strikes the ball so well from both sides.”

About the decision to turn pro, Rinaldi said, “It’s her decision. That’s a personal decision and between her and her family. She’s obviously having great results but she’s also a very bright girl and into her studies, too, and I’m sure they’ll make the right decision when the time comes.”

The doubles final will kick off Sunday’s action at 11 a.m. featuring a local San Diego product in a matchup of the No. 2 and 3 seeds. Former Cal-Berkeley No. 1 Haley Giavara, who grew up in San Diego and attended Serra High, and partner Rasheeda McAdoo will take on No. 2 Maria Kononova and Maria Kozyreva. In Saturday’s semifinals, Giavara and McAdoo beat the No. 1 seeded team of American Carmen Corley and Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus in a super tiebreaker.

The tournament is part of the USTA Competitive Pathway circuit. Check out the tournament’s Instagram page @RSFOpen. Check out the informative website at www.rsfopen.com for all the tournament news, schedules and draws.

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RSF Open Semifinalist Katherine Sebov Fondly Remembers Former Coach Robert Lansdorp

Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. – October 4, 2024 – With the recent passing of legendary tennis coach Robert Lansdorp, Canadian Katherine Sebov lost a trusted advisor and mentor, but more importantly she lost a great friend.  

Unseeded this week at the sixth annual RSF Open taking place at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club, the 25-year-old Sebov upset No. 1-seed and 18-year-old University of Texas freshman Maya Joint, 6-4, 6-4, in Friday’s quarterfinals.

After the match Sebov reflected on the mid-September passing of the iconic Lansdorp, who coached Grand Slam champions and former world No. 1s such as Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras, Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova.

“I spent a lot of hours with Robert,” said Sebov, who is of Ukranian descent and was born in Toronto. “He came to Toronto to a conference and invited us to train at his place for a month at a time.”

Sebov, who was also taught the game by her mother Oksana Petrovska, said she worked with Lansdorp until she was 18 years old. “I have a lot of credit to give him for where my game is today and the strokes that I have today are all him and for that I am very grateful,” said Sebov, who will take on former UCLA star and two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year Ena Shibahara in the semifinals on Saturday.

“It wasn’t just the strokes, but the mental part of the game too,” Sebov continued. “I’m going to really miss him and found out that he recently passed away so it hasn’t been easy hearing this news.

“I just hope he’s somewhere up there watching me play and that he’s proud of me.”

Sebov said she saw Lansdorp last year and talked to him on the phone two months ago. “I always called him and checked in on him,” she said. “We were quite close.”

In beating Joint, Sebov said: “I think she’s a really good player. She’s what I like to call a ‘feel’ player and tough to play because she’s very adaptable and very smart. So she knows how to beat her opponent. She was tricky and I had to play really good tennis to beat her.”

Ranked No. 288 in the world rankings, Sebov is trying to get her ranking back into the 100s after missing two and a half months off because of wrist injury she suffered at the Australian Open.

“I would love to make it to Australia but I’m kind of at a one step at a time mindset and I have some points I have to defend at the end of this year,” said Sebov, who has won four titles on the ITF tour and has beaten Shibahara the one time they have faced each other. “If Australia doesn’t happen it’s OK. It hasn’t been easy but I’m getting back into it and we’ll see where it goes.”

In the other semifinal, the unseeded 16-year-old Iva Jovic from Torrance will take on No. 5 seeded Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand. Jovic needed just over an hour to beat Gabriela Knutson from the Czech Republic and Tararudee took out No. 2 seed Rebecca Marino from Canada, 6-4, 6-2.

One of Sunday’s doubles finalists was determined as No. 2 Maria Kononova and Maria Kozyreva beat American Madison Sieg and Veronika Miroshnichenko from Russia, 10-1 in a super tiebreaker after splitting sets. Sieg played her college tennis at USC and Miroshnichenko at Loyola Marymount.

In a quarterfinal doubles match, San Diego’s Haley Giavara and Rasheeda McAdoo advanced to a Saturday semifinal as the No. 3 seeded pairing beat Maya Iyengar and Annika Penickova, 10-7 in a super tiebreaker. Giavara-McAdoo take on No. 1 seeded American Carmen Corley and Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus in the first match of the day starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

The tournament is part of the USTA Competitive Pathway circuit. Check out the tournament’s Instagram page @RSFOpen. Check out the informative website at www.rsfopen.com for all the tournament news, schedules and draws.

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Teenagers Joint and Jovic Post Straight-Set Wins To Make Quarterfinals At RSF Open

Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. – October 3, 2024 – The top three seeded players – including No. 1 Maya Joint – won straight-set matched on Thursday at the RSF Open to advance to Friday’s quarterfinals, which will begin at 11 a.m. at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club.

The 18-year-old Michigan-born Joint, who represents Australia, started classes at the University of Texas five weeks ago but is solely focused on the ITF World Tour W75 with a total of $60,000 in prize money at stake this week. She got past 17-year-old Akasha Urhobo from Boca Raton, Fla., 6-4 6-4, and will next face Canada’s unseeded Katherine Sebov on Friday.

In the Round of 16, Sebov needed a comeback win in three sets to eliminate tournament wild card and 15-year-old Julieta Pareja from Carlsbad, 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-3, in a three-hour, five-minute marathon. A high school sophomore, Pareja won her first ITF pro title earlier this summer at the $15K So Cal Pro Series event at Rancho Santa Fe TC. She will play the new Bakersfield W35 ITF Futures event next week before heading to Turkey in November to represent the United States at the Junior Billie Jean King Cup.

It was Torrance’s Iva Jovic, just 16 years old, who clinched the Junior BJK Cup for the U.S. team last November making it five titles over the last six years in an event the U.S. has dominated. On Thursday, Jovic won her seventh straight match downing fellow unseeded Madison Sieg, 6-2, 6-3. Jovic is coming off her second ITF pro title win last weekend as she won the ITF W35 Berkeley singles title.

Seeded at No. 2, former world-ranked No. 38 Rebecca Marino of Canada beat Elvina Kalieva of Florida, 7-6(3), 6-4 and No. 3 Ena Shibahara of Japan downed 15-year-old wild card Annika Penickova in dominating fashion dropping just one game, 6-1, 6-0, in 1:11.

Playing for Thailand, 20-year-old Lanlana Tararudee has quietly had a solid week and was pressed by American wild card Ashley Kratzer of Newport Beach before pulling away and winning a deciding third set, 6-0. Tararudee is ranked No. 179 in the world and will next faceMarino for a spot in Saturday’s semis.

Former world No. 26-ranked and a qualifier this week Lauren Davis continued her hot streak in Rancho Santa Fe winning her fourth match in a row without dropping a set and beating No. 8 seeded Hanna Chang from Fontana, 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles semifinalists moving on with wins on Thursday included the top two seeded teams – No. 1 American Carmen Corley and Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus and No. 2 Maria Kononova and Maria Kozyreva. Last year’s doubles finalist Madison Sieg moved one match closer to repeating that result as she and Veronika Miroshnichenko from Russia toppled the No. 4 seeds Elvina Kalieva and Katarzyna Kawa 10-8 in a super tiebreaker. Sieg played her college tennis at USC and Miroshnichenko at Loyola Marymount.

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USTA Girls’ 18s Nationals Champion 16-Year-Old Iva Jovic’s Amazing Year Continues With First-Round Comeback Win At RSF Open

Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. – Oct. 2, 2024 – It’s been quite a year for Torrance’s 16-year-old rising tennis star Iva Jovic.

Just seven weeks ago, Jovic was the talk of tennis in the United States having won the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s Nationals for junior tennis’ biggest prize earning a wild card into the US Open Women’s main draw. Jovic would go on to stun 2023 Australian Open semifinalist Magda Linette losing just seven games before falling to No. 29 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, 7-5 in the third, but still earning a total of $140,000 in prize money. 

On Wednesday in the first round at the RSF Open in North San Diego County – just 35 miles from that Nationals victory near Point Loma – Jovic did it again, this time coming back in convincing fashion to beat former Princeton University star Victoria Hu from Massachusetts, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, at the ITF W75 event taking place at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club.

Currently ranked No. 290 in the WTA world rankings, Jovic is the No. 2-ranked ITF junior player in the world and has already won the Australian Open and Wimbledon Junior doubles titles this year. Just last week, Jovic won her second ITF professional title at the Berkeley W35 tournament.

Jovic, who makes numerous trips to the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., and works closely with her USTA National coach Tom Gutteridge, still spends ample time when she’s home with Peter Smith, the former five-time NCAA title winning coach for USC. Jovic will next face another former Trojan in Madison Sieg in the second round at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Former WTA world-ranked No. 26 Lauren Davis, who had gone more than a year without winning a main-draw match, finally ended her streak as the qualifier played solid tennis against Louisa Chirico dropping just three games, 6-3, 6-0. Davis had lost 10 first-round matches this year since returning from a seven-month injury layoff in April that saw her ranking drop from No. 72 on January 1 to her current No. 554.

Another player who turned up the heat in the second and final set was No. 3 seeded Ena Shibahara, who represents Japan but grew up in Rancho Palos Verdes and led the UCLA Bruins to an NCAA team title in 2014. Shibahara was tired of the “doubles specialist” label as she reached the No. 4 ranking in the world and won the 2022 French Open Mixed Doubles title. She has progressed nicely since focusing solely on singles and beat former USD star and qualifier Solymar Colling, 6-2, 6-0.

Like Jovic, Annika Penickova from Campbell near San Jose, is still considered a junior at the age of 15. The wild card looked impressive Wednesday advancing with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Dejana Radanovic from Serbia.

The 2022 RSF Open singles finalist, 20-year-old Katrina Scott from Woodland Hills, Calif., wasn’t able to repeat her past glory as she was eliminated in the first round by qualifier Carolyn Campana. It was the biggest win of Campana’s career as the Northern Californian, who played her college tennis at Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Pepperdine, had previously qualified for a $60,000 but did not advance pas the first round. Campana, whose father Mark played tennis at UCLA, came back after dropping the first set to beat Scott, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Six of the seven top-seeded players who have competed have survived the first round with No. 1 Maya Joint from Australia moving on with a 6-4, 6-2 win over lucky loser Tori Kinard from Pasadena.

In doubles, the local wild card team of Alyssa Ahn, 17, from Torrey Pines and Julieta Pareja, 15, from Carlsbad were close, but couldn’t quite pull off the upset losing 10-8 in a super tiebreaker after splitting sets against the No. 2 seeds Maria Kononova and Maria Kozyreva. The No. 1 team of Carmen Corley and Iryna Shymanovich took out San Diego State wild cards Vesa Gjinaj and Zoe Olmos, 6-1, 6-3.

The tournament is part of the USTA Competitive Pathway circuit. Check out the tournament’s Instagram page @RSFOpen. Check out the informative website at www.rsfopen.com for all the tournament news, schedules and draws.

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For further information please contact:

Steve Pratt, Media Contact – 310-408-4555; SteveP@bzapr.com

San Diego Union-Tribune:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/10/01/kick-off-cocktail-party-held-for-rsf-open-pro-tennis-tournament/