Two titles, one tournament, two years
Iva Jovic has won two WTA titles in her career. Both of them are the Guadalajara Open, and the second one arrived earlier today, 6-4, 6-2 against Peyton Stearns in an hour and 26 minutes.
The 18-year-old from Los Angeles went through the week without losing a set. In the final she never faced a break point. Stearns could not construct one, while Jovic took three of the five she created herself. That is the whole match in a sentence, and the serve numbers say the rest: 40 points won from 57 on serve for Jovic, 30 from 51 for Stearns.
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An all-American final in Mexico
Stearns came into the final ranked 60th and carrying a similar profile to her opponent. She also has two tour titles, won at Rabat in May 2024 and at Austin in February this year. The difference in Guadalajara was that Jovic, seeded second and ranked 16th, never gave her a foothold on serve.
Jovic has been climbing all season. She took Alex Eala the distance over three hours at the US Open before Coco Gauff ended her run in the fourth round, and she reaches the closing weeks of the year with a title defended rather than a ranking merely held.
Both top seeds fall in Sao Paulo
The other WTA event of the week produced a final nobody predicted. Kaitlin Quevedo, the seventh seed, needed two hours and 23 minutes to put out fourth seed Anna Blinkova 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, surviving seven double faults of her own and converting four of 13 break points.
The bigger surprise came from Nadia Podoroska. The Argentinian is unseeded and ranked 317th in the world, and she dismissed second seed Paula Badosa 6-3, 6-4 in 89 minutes. Podoroska took six of her 11 break chances. Badosa hit more aces and fewer double faults and still found herself out of the tournament.
Quevedo and Podoroska meet for the SP Open title.
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