Iva Jovic, the youngest player in the Top 100 of the WTA rankings, achieved a major breakthrough on Sunday by winning her first singles title at the Guadalajara Open.
The American captured the crown with a 6-4 6-1 victory over Emiliana Arango, finishing the final in just over 90 minutes.
With this result, Jovic overtook Mirra Andreeva as the youngest WTA singles champion of the season, clinching her maiden title at 17 years and 283 days old—16 days younger than Andreeva was when she won in Dubai earlier this year.
Jovic is also the youngest American woman to lift a Tour-level trophy since Coco Gauff triumphed in Parma in 2021.
The final featured two first-time finalists, and though Arango battled bravely—fighting illness and saving multiple set points in a close opening set—she could not turn the match around.
Jovic was unable to close out the opener at 5-3 after missing three set points. Still, she kept her composure and immediately broke Arango in the following game, when the Colombian was serving to stay in the set.
After that turning point, Jovic took control, securing three breaks in the second set and cruising to victory.
For Jovic, who entered Guadalajara ranked as world number 73, this win will propel her into the top 50 for the first time when the new rankings are released on Monday.
Elsewhere, Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah joined the list of first-time WTA Tour champions this season by defeating Janice Tjen 6-3 6-4 in one hour and 22 minutes to win the Sao Paulo Open title.
Data Debrief: The kids are alright
With Jovic's triumph, it means two players under the age of 18 have won WTA tournaments in a single season for the first time since 2019, when Amanda Anisimova and Gauff did so.
Indeed, in Jovic and Rakotomanga Rajaonah succeeding, two teenagers have won WTA-level events in the same week for the first time since September 2008 - Caroline Wozniacki (Tokyo) and Sorana Cirstea (Tashkent).
Rakotomanga Rajaonah, meanwhile, ended a nine-year wait for a French teenager to triumph on the WTA Tour.
