Torrance’s Iva Jovic tries to topple Pegula at Wimbledon

An 18-year-old from Torrance, Iva Jovic, takes on Jessica Pegula in an all-American Wimbledon fourth-round match on No. 1 Court after both won on Friday. Pegula comes in as the highest-ranked American, while Jovic arrives as the youngest player remaining in th

LONDON — When the weekend’s fireworks moved to Wimbledon’s No. 1 Court, the script got an American twist: an all-American collision between Jessica Pegula and Iva Jovic that feels like a handoff from one generation of women’s tennis to the next.

Pegula, 32, is the highest-ranked American and a veteran standard-bearer. Jovic is 18, from Torrance, and has been labeled the brightest young American star since Coco Gauff. The match, set for Sunday’s fourth round, has the pressure of a Grand Slam and the quiet charge of youth.

Pegula walked into the spotlight after a clinical 6-1, 6-3 third-round defeat of Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain on Friday. “I know she’s going to come after me hard,” Pegula said after that win. Jovic earned her place in the round with a tougher path on Friday. grinding out a 6-3. 3-6. 6-4 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time. “There is a little bit extra competition there,” Jovic said of the environment around being an emerging top American.

They’ve already faced each other twice this year—on hard courts in Dubai and on clay in Charleston, S.C.—and Pegula won both. Still, they’re hardly strangers beyond the scorelines. Jovic has been repeatedly encouraged to model her game after Pegula’s.

Their styles may overlap in the way they build points from the baseline, but the differences matter. “There is a lot of things we do well, and we do similar, but a couple of differences too,” Jovic said. Pegula is expecting a duel that looks like a mirror, too.

Their career paths also diverged sharply before their first Grand Slam meeting. Pegula spent years grinding through the Women’s Tennis Association’s lower tier before becoming a late-blooming major contender and top-10 mainstay. Jovic’s rise, by contrast, has been quick and loud. Pegula has 11 career singles titles, while Jovic has one. Pegula has amassed more than 500 tour-level wins compared with just over 100 for the teenager.

Jovic is already rewriting what “young” can mean at Wimbledon. She’s the youngest player in the WTA rankings’ top 80, and the youngest remaining in the Wimbledon singles draw. In just her second Wimbledon. she won her first WTA title last season at 17. then backed it up with a breakout quarterfinal run at the Australian Open in January.

Pegula, for her part, knows the match isn’t only about talent. It’s about adjustment—especially to grass, where her results have never fully matched her ranking. Historically, she has not been a force at Wimbledon, reaching the quarterfinals only once, in 2023.

She’s candid about the fight she used to have on the surface. “I feel like sometimes years in the past I’ve really fought against how to move on it. fought against all the intangibles. all the slices. ” she said. This year. she says she has relaxed her approach. improved her balance. and added more pop to her serve—a major asset on grass.

Jovic, meanwhile, seems to have found the footing faster than most. She has been a quick study on the tricky part of grass: sliding, adjusting, and recovering when momentum shifts. Growing up in Los Angeles County. where grass courts are virtually nonexistent. she doesn’t have a lifetime on the surface. Instead, she credits soccer for building the kind of movement that transfers to tennis.

She has played left wing in local soccer leagues from about ages 6 to 13. and Jovic says that cross-training gave her exceptional. low-to-the-ground footwork. “It’s very closely related to the movement that we do in tennis,” Jovic said. The payoff has shown up in her results—she won her first professional title on grass in England last year and recently reached the semifinals at the prestigious Queen’s Club warmup event.

Pegula’s own confidence has grown in London, and she has watched Jovic’s rise up close. After seeing her play this season, Pegula praised her competitive instincts and rapid adjustment to grass. “Jovic,” Pegula said, “competes like an animal.”

Still, the grass-court chess match isn’t only about movement. It’s also about mental speed—how quickly urgency crawls into every rally when a major title is within reach. Pegula acknowledged the feeling as time has compressed across the first week in London. “It goes by so fast,” she said.

Their relationship to each other is built on familiarity and respect. Hall of Fame analyst Pam Shriver pointed to the unusual way the rivalry exists across generations. “It’s interesting when rivalries can develop generations apart from the same country. and I think they have a really good respect for each other. ” Shriver said.

Shriver added that Jovic can learn from Pegula’s cerebral approach, while veterans like Pegula can tap into a fresh mindset from the younger generation’s unflinching energy.

For Pegula, there’s also a personal dimension to the draw and the moment. She’s made her run by sharpening her form and staying solid under pressure. Through the first week in London. Pegula hasn’t dropped a set in three matches. gliding into the fourth round and looking more and more like the favorite in her quarter. She has also played well against fellow Americans; since 2023, Pegula is an impressive 33-3 against her compatriots.

“I’m always motivated to beat the other Americans in a way that’s different,” Pegula said. She added, “Excited again to challenge myself against someone who is much younger, who is playing with nothing to lose and no fear.”

Jovic understands what’s at stake, too. Sunday’s match is a massive opportunity to prove her fast ascent is no fluke and flip the script on her head-to-head deficit. “Hopefully, this will be the one I get her,” she said.

Then comes the bigger picture, where the match is only the first domino. Reaching next weekend’s final will require navigating a brutal top half of the draw that includes four-time major winners Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka. two-time major champion Gauff. and the last Wimbledon champion left in the field—2024 winner Barbora Krejcikova.

On a weekend devoted to celebrating the U.S., at least one American will be celebrating at Wimbledon when the fireworks fade—either Pegula, the veteran who knows what it takes, or Jovic, the newcomer trying to make her story land in the biggest place on earth.

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Wimbledon Jessica Pegula Iva Jovic all-American match No. 1 Court grass court tennis American women tennis