Iva Jovic found herself in rare territory on the opening day of the ASB Classic.
In the space of one afternoon, the 18-year-old American made two appearances on centre court at Stanley Street as she moved into the second round in the singles and doubles draws.
Jovic, the No 3 seed in the singles draw, made a shaky start to her day as she opened the tournament against Czech qualifier Gabriela Knutson, needing three sets to get the win 4-6, 6-0, 6-1, before she and playing partner Alexandra Eala topped makeshift superstar tandem Venus Williams and Elina Svitolina in straight sets, 7-6 (7), 6-1.
“I’m feeling good. Honestly, I think the adrenaline rush is still going so I’m feeling good and really happy to still be in both draws,” Jovic said after her second win of the day.
Jovic was made to work for her singles victory over Knutson, who was able to break the American’s serve early in the first set and hold on to that advantage to take the set.
As the match progressed, however, Jovic found her rhythm and only dropped one more game during the rest of the match.
Jovic was particularly impressive with her returning game, the placement of her groundstrokes and her movement. She was also ruthless when it counted, converting five of six break points.
Jovic said she was a “bit out of sorts” in the first set, while Knutson was consistent, forcing errors and hitting winners. But once Jovic lifted at the start of the second set, her opponent had no answer.
“The first set of the year is always tricky... feeling a little rusty and my opponent, as a qualifier, she had her groove already and she came out swinging.
“I think I did a good job of resetting, bringing my energy up in the second and riding it through to the third. It’s never easy in those types of matches so I’m glad to just get through it.”
It was a similar case in the doubles match, as Jovic and Eala were able to fend off seven set points before taking the first set in a tiebreaker. They were then too good in the second set, closing the match out in style.
Williams and Svitolina will appear in the singles draw on Tuesday.
As an opening chapter, Jovic lived up to the excitement generated in 2025 when she was the youngest player on the WTA tour to win a title and jumped from world No 191 to No 35.
The tournament’s second seed Emma Navarro could not manage the same sort of comeback as Jovic in her opening assignment, falling to Britain’s Francesca Jones 5-7 6-2 4-6 in the evening session.
Navarro was shaky early, falling into a 3-0 hole in the first set but worked her way into the match quickly to lead 5-4. But losing another three games in a row saw her fall behind; Jones taking the set 7-5 in just over an hour.
The pair traded breaks to begin the second set, but Navarro took control from that point to level the score with a dominant 6-2 second.
In a match with plenty of breaks of serve, only two break points were earned in the deciding set, with Jones needing both to win the third game and get the advantage over her American counterpart.
That saw the Brit only needing to hold serve to close out the upset, and she did so with conviction.
In other matches, Chinese seventh-seed Wang Xinyu needed three sets to progress into the second round against Caty McNally of the United States, winning the first-round match 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Fellow American Peyton Stearns was the first of the seeded players to fall, with the No 8 seed defeated in straight sets by Spain’s Kaitlin Quevedo 6-2, 7-5.
In the doubles tournament, Kiwi duo Elyse Tse and Monique Barry were beaten by Chinese third seeds Yang Zhaoxuan and Xu Yifan 6-0, 6-1.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.