Girls 18s Champion Jovic Defeats Linette on Good First Day for Americans at US Open; US Open Junior Wild Cards, Mixed Doubles Wild Cards Announced

Iva Jovic, who didn't drop a set in her seven victories at the USTA National 18s Championships in San Diego this month, continued her excellent form this evening at the US Open, defeating WTA No. 42 Magda Linette of Poland 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the second round.

Jovic looked extremely confident throughout the match, with the key game of the first set coming with the 16-year-old from Torrance California serving at 3-2. She fell behind 15-40, but won the next four points to keep her lead. I thought she might regret not converting her set point with Linette serving a 3-5, 30-40, but she closed it out on her serve on her second set point with a good first serve.

The second had just one break of serve, with Linette, who at 32 is twice Jovic's age, losing a long backhand to backhand rally on Jovic second break point of the game to fall behind 4-3. Jovic consolidated for 5-3, then went up 15-40 in Linette's service game, but lost those two match points, with a return error and forehand winner from Linette bringing it back to deuce. But Jovic earned another match point and didn't have to hit another ball, with Linette double faulting to end the match.

Jovic is the first National 18s champion to win a round at the US Open since Kayla Day in 2016, but in her press conference after the match, she sounded almost as if she had expected to win, and as the end of the match approached, Jovic managed to avoid getting tentative or showing any nervousness.

"I just had a plan for what I was going to do before we started, and there weren't many needs for crazy adjustments, because it was going well. I was sticking to it, taking one point at a time. I got a wild card into the tournament I didn't know I was going to play, so I'm surprised and not surprised, but obviously I'm happy."

Jovic, who will play the winner of the match between No. 29 Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia and Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria, currently suspended by rain, was one of six American women to advance to the second round with wins today; five US men won their opening matches, including Brandon Nakashima(Virginia), who upset No. 15 seed Holger Rune of Denmark 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. 

Monday's first round matches featuring Americans:

Ben Shelton[13] d. Dominic Thiem[WC](AUT) 6-4, 6-2, 6-2

Taylor Fritz[12] d. Camilo Ugo Carabelli(ARG) 7-5, 6-1, 6-2

Frances Tiafoe[20] d. Aleks Kovacevic 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5

Lorenzo Musetti[18](ITA) d. Reilly Opelka 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-1 7-5

Arthur Rinderknech(FRA) d. Chris Eubanks[WC] 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(8)

Mitchell Krueger[Q] d. Hugo Grenier[Q](FRA) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5

Brandon Nakashima d. Holger Rune[15](DEN) 6-2, 6-1, 6-4

Coco Gauff[3] d. Varvara Gracheva(FRA) 6-2, 6-0

Clara Burel(FRA) d. Sloane Stephens 0-6, 7-5, 7-5

Qinwen Zheng[7](CHN) d. Amanda Anisimova[WC] 4-6, 6-4, 6-2

Madison Keys[14] d. Katerina Siniakova(CZE) 6-4, 6-1

Emma Navarro[13] d. Anna Blinkova(RUS) 6-1, 6-1

Peyton Stearns d. Lesia Tsurenko(UKR) 6-1, 7-5

Ajla Tomljanovic(AUS) d. Ann Li[Q] 6-4, 6-4

Marta Kostyuk[10](UKR) d. McCartney Kessler[WC] 6-2, 6-3

Iva Jovic[WC] d. Magda Linette(POL) 6-4, 6-3

Taylor Townsend d. Martina Trevisan(ITA) 6-2, 7-5

Tuesday's first round matches featuring Americans:

Mackenzie McDonald v Jannik Sinner[1](ITA)

Eliot Spizzirri[Q] v Alex Michelsen

Learner Tien[WC] v Arthur Fils[24](FRA)

Tommy Paul[14] v Lorenzo Sonego(ITA)

Sebastian Korda[16] v Corentin Moutet(FRA)

Marcos Giron v Alex De Minaur[10](AUS)

Zachary Svajda[WC] v Matteo Arnaldi[30](ITA)

Matthew Forbes[WC] v Roman Safiullin(RUS)

Ashlyn Krueger v Shuai Zhang(CHN)

Danielle Collins[11] v Caroline Dolehide

Sofia Kenin v Emma Raducanu(GBR)

Jessica Pegula[6] v Shelby Rogers

Alexa Noel[WC] v Sara Sorribes Tormo(ESP)

Bernarda Pera v Anna Bondar(HUN)

Lauren Davis v Anna Kalinskaya[15](RUS)

Katie Volynets v Karolina Muchova(CZE)

Varvara Lepchenko[Q] v Brenda Fruhvirtova(CZE)

Tuesday's schedule for all matches is here.

The wild cards for the US Open Junior Championships have been awarded, although there still may be changes with late withdrawals before Sunday's main draw play.

Main draw:

Boys:

Matthew Forbes

Gus Grumet

Rudy Quan

Kase Schinnerer

Nikita Filin

Matisse Farzam

Benjamin Willwerth

Dominick Mosejczuk

Qualifying:

Kosuke Asada (Japan High School champion)

Krish Arora

Stiles Brockett

Maximus Dussault

Jack Secord

Keaton Hance

Girls:

Main draw:

Iva Jovic

Valerie Glozman

Ishika Ashar

Julieta Pareja

Annika Penickova

Anita Tu

Alanis Hamilton

Shannon Lam

Qualifying:

Hinata Chiba (Japan High School champion)

Welles Newman

Margaret Sohns

Raya Kotseva

Nancy Lee

US Open junior qualifying begins Thursday.

The USTA announced the mixed doubles wild cards, with Jovic, Tyra Grant, Clervie Ngounoue, Kaylan Bigun and Learner Tien the juniors receiving them. Thai Kwiatkowski, Virginia's 2017 NCAA singles champion, announced his retirement from professional tennis last week, and will make his final appearance in mixed doubles with Ashlyn Krueger.

Taylor Townsend and Donald Young
Clervie Ngounoue and Learner Tien
Shelby Rogers and Rob Galloway
Alycia Parks and Jackson Withrow
Maria Mateas and Mackenzie McDonald
Ashlyn Krueger and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski
Tyra Grant and Aleks Kovacevic
Iva Jovic and Kaylan Bigun