Jovic Reaches Final at WTA 500 in Mexico; Tjen Advances to Final at WTA 250 in Brazil; Svajda Faces Pinnington Jones for Winston-Salem Challenger Title; Columbus Challenger 75 Qualifying Begins Sunday

Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic, who reached her first WTA quarterfinal this week at the 500 in Guadalajara Mexico, is through to Sunday's final, beating wild card Nikola Bartunkova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3 Saturday night. Jovic, who has played back-to-back matches lasting nearly three hours, will face 24-year-old Emilana Arango of Colombia for the title. Arango defeated Elsa Jacquemot of France 6-4, 7-5 in the earlier semifinal.

Former Pepperdine All-American Janice Tjen continues her WTA breakout the past few weeks, reaching the final of the WTA 250 in Sao Paulo Brazil with a 7-6(0), 6-3 win over No. 6 seed Francesca Jones of Great Britain. The 23-year-old from Indonesia, who has beaten the No. 7, No. 3 and No. 6 seeds this week, will play unseeded 19-year-old Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah of France in the final. Tjen will break into the WTA Top 100 just 15 months after graduating if she takes the title Sunday.

Trevor Svajda, a junior at SMU, has reached his first ATP Challenger final, posting a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Rafael Jodar of Spain today at the Winston-Salem 75. The 19-year-old from San Diego, playing in his first Challenger semifinal broke the University of Virginia sophomore six times, including three straight times to open the second set, but Svajda was broken twice himself in the first five games. At 5-all in each set he broke, then served it out at love. Last year the two played twice in the dual match season, with Jodar winning the first 6-3, 6-2 and the second going unfinished.

Svajda will face 22-year-old Jack Pinnington Jones of Britain, who recently turned pro after playing No. 1 last season for TCU. Pinnington Jones, seeded No. 4, defeated Christian Langmo(Miami) 6-3, 6-4. Svajda and Pinnington Jones played twice in college, with Pinnington Jones winning their match in 2024 and their 2025 match going unfinished.

Andrew Fenty(Michigan) and Noah Schachter(Texas A&M) won their first Challenger doubles title, and first title as a pair, beating Daniel Milavsky(Harvard) and Juan Jose Bianchi(Boston College) of Venezuela 6-4, 6-4 in the final between unseeded teams. Fenty, 25, now has four doubles title in his career; Schachter, 26, has 11, with both earning three of those this year.

Qualifying for the Columbus Challenger 75 begins Sunday, with Stanford senior Samir Banerjee the top seed. Below are the times and matchups, with all wild cards going to current or future Ohio State players.

Columbus Challenger - Columbus, OH, United States
$100,000
14 - 21 September 2025

Qualifying
ORDER OF PLAY - SUNDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2025
Court 1 - start 10:00
[6] Tristan McCormick (USA) vs [Alt] Luca Castagnola (ITA)
[5] Ryuki Matsuda (JPN) vs [WC] Bryce Nakashima (USA)
[3] Antoine Ghibaudo (FRA) vs [WC] Ilija Palavestra (USA)
[4] Carlo Alberto Caniato (ITA) vs [WC] Preston Stearns (USA)
[Alt] Kaylan Bigun (USA) vs [12] Cannon Kingsley (USA)
[2] Daniel Milavsky (USA) vs Blaise Bicknell (JAM)


Court 3 - start 10:00
Karl Poling (USA) vs [9] Daniel Masur (GER)
[Alt] Justin Boulais (CAN) vs [8] Pietro Fellin (ITA)
[Alt] Joshua Sheehy (USA) vs [11] Erik Arutiunian
[WC] Nikita Samuel Filin (USA) vs [7] Nicolas Arseneault (CAN)
[1] Samir Banerjee (USA) vs Elmar Ejupovic (GER)
[CO] Sebastian Dominko (SLO) vs [10] Edward Winter (AUS)

The main draw, with the matchups below, has many of the same players as this week's Challenger in Winston-Salem, although Svadja and Pinnington Jones are not playing it. All three wild cards are current Ohio State players.

Men's Singles
[1] Juan Pablo Ficovich (ARG) vs Alfredo Perez (USA)
[JR] Theo Papamalamis (FRA) vs Qualifier
Andre Ilagan (USA) vs Qualifier
Michael Zheng (USA) vs [8] Garrett Johns (USA)
[4] Nicolas Mejia (COL) vs Rafael Jodar (ESP)
Alex Rybakov (USA) vs Moerani Bouzige (AUS)
Qualifier vs Qualifier
Federico Bondioli (ITA) vs [6] Andres Martin (USA)
[7] [Alt] Martin Damm (USA) vs [WC] Aidan Kim (USA)
[WC] Jack Anthrop (USA) vs Qualifier
[Alt] Petr Brunclik (CZE) vs Patrick Maloney (USA)
Philip Sekulic (AUS) vs [3] James Trotter (JPN)
[5] Johannus Monday (GBR) vs Darwin Blanch (USA)
Christian Langmo (USA) vs Qualifier
Tyler Zink (USA) vs [WC] Alexander Bernard (USA)
Abdullah Shelbayh (JOR) vs [2] Murphy Cassone (USA)

The USA-Czech Davis Cup tie in Delray Beach Florida is currently tied at 2-2, with Frances Tiafoe facing Jakub Mensik to decide who advances to the quarterfinals in Italy in November. Rain on both days has pushed matches late into the evening. The results so far:

Friday:

Jiri Lehecka d. Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-2

Taylor Fritz d. Jakub Mensik 6-4, 6-3

Saturday:

Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram d. Tomas Machac and Jakub Mensik 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-4

Jiri Lehecka d. Taylor Fritz 6-4, 3-6, 6-4

Jakub Mensik d. Frances Tiafoe 6-1, 6-4