Key events
The 18-year-old’s win follows the 19-year-old Mboko’s earlier, and we’ve still got the 18-year-old Andreeva to come in the night session. With five women in total playing in the third round, it’s the most at a major since the 2009 US Open. Despite the increased emphasis on strength and size at the top of the game in recent years, the prodigies are thriving, and it’s great for the game.
Jovic, seeded 29, will face the unseeded Yulia Putintseva in the last 16, so she’ll go into her first fourth-round match at a slam in the strange position of being the favourite. Not that I think that’ll faze her.
“It feels amazing,” Jovic says. “I’ve been wanting this one for a while now. I just tried to focus [in the tie-break] on what I was doing earlier in the match, when I served for the match I was a bit passive, so I told myself to go out swinging in the tie-break.” She then thanks her family who’ve flown in from LA. She reminds me of how her fellow American Coco Gauff was when she broke through on tour, in how she speaks with a maturity beyond her years. She looks like the real deal.
Jovic beats Paolini 6-2, 7-6
If you haven’t heard that much about Jovic before, she’s some talent. The 18-year-old has been described by Andy Roddick as having “power you can’t teach”, but what also sets her apart from almost all of her peers is her focus, dedication and maturity. A year ago she was ranked at No 191, but now is seeded for the first time at a slam, having already won WTA titles on three surfaces, and she’s again closing in on the biggest victory of her career as she edges 5-3 ahead. And a fizzing forehand gives her three match points at 6-3! Paolini prods wide and Jovic has well and truly arrived! It’s her first win over a top-10 player and she’s also broken new ground by advancing to the fourth round of a grand slam. What a result to get us started.
Let’s get straight to the John Cain Arena, because Jovic, having served for the match twice, has been taken to a tie-break by Paolini. The first four points of the breaker go against serve, and there are plenty of oooohs and aaaaaahs as Paolini turns defence into attack in an absorbing point to charge forward to the short ball. Paolini shows superb defence on the next point too, but Jovic is eventually able to pierce it. They change ends at 3-3 …
Preamble
G’day and welcome to our coverage of day six, where the stories so far are aplenty. Both the world No 1s have won: Aryna Sabalenka in two tight, tense, tie-break sets against her friend Anastasia Potapova, while Carlos Alcaraz advanced more comfortably, 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 against the Frenchman Corentin Moutet.
Two of the most precocious teenagers in tennis have also taken the headlines, with victorious Victoria Mboko, the 19-year-old Canadian, defeating the 14th seed Clara Tauson, and Iva Jovic, the 18-year-old Californian, on the verge of taking out Jasmine Paolini, leading 6-2, 6-5. More on that to follow …
Daniil Medvedev v2.0 came from two sets down to defeat Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan, Coco Gauff also went the distance before beating fellow American Hailey Baptiste, there have been wins for Gauff’s compatriots Tommy Paul and Learner Thien, plus the wonderful Czech Karolina Muchova.
And there’s so much more to get stuck into in the night session too, with the last Australian man in the singles Alex de Minaur facing the American showman Frances Tiafoe in a potential blockbuster and the last surviving Brit Cameron Norrie taking on the 2025 runner-up Alexander Zverev. We also get to enjoy the perennially popular Elena Svitolina, the enigmas that are Andrey Rublev and Alexander Bublik (Rublev is currently 6-4 down against Francisco Cerundolo) and arguably the most talented teen of all, Mirra Andreeva. What with Mboko and Jovic too, perhaps another prodigy era in women’s tennis is dawning.
It may still be dark outside my window in London, but Melbourne Park is shining, so let’s bask in that glow whatever your worldly whereabouts may be.
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