Iva Jovic has won her first ever WTA main tour title at the Guadalajara Open.
Jovic, who is just 17 years and 283 days old, beat Emiliana Arango to win the WTA 500 tournament in Guadalajara.
This means that she has become the youngest title winner this year, improving on Mirra Andreeva when she won the Dubai Tennis Championships.
The American teenager appears to be a popular winner, with Jovic receiving messages from Jessica Pegula and Danielle Collins, amongst others.
Despite still being very young, Jovic still does not feature in the list of the top 10 youngest WTA title winners in history.
Tracy Austin leads list of the 10 youngest WTA title winners in history
The list of the top 10 youngest WTA title winners is headlined by former world number one Tracy Austin, who had just turned 14 years old when she won the Portland title in 1977.
Austin was certainly not a flash in the pan, as just two years later she would become a Grand Slam champion after winning the US Open at 16.
Although she did not go on to quite have the same career as Austin, another American in Kathy Rinaldi is second in this list after winning her first WTA title at 14 years and six months.
Rinaldi went on to become a top 10 player and more recently has been a fundamental figure in American tennis, as the USA Billie Jean King Cup captain for over six years and she is now the USTA Player Development’s Head of Women’s Tennis.
Some of the other notable names in this list include former world number ones Jennifer Capriati and Monica Seles, as well as 1990 US Open champion Gabriela Sabatini.
| Youngest WTA title winners | First title they won | How old they were at the time |
| 1. Tracy Austin | Portland (1977) | 14 years, 28 days |
| 2. Kathy Rinaldi | Kyoto (1981) | 14 years, 6 months, 24 days |
| 3. Jennifer Capriati | Puerto Rico (1990) | 14 years, 6 months, 29 days |
| 4. Andrea Jaeger | Las Vegas (1980) | 14 years, 7 months, 14 days |
| 5. Mirjana Lucic-Baroni | Bol (1997) | 15 years, 1 month, 25 days |
| 6. Nicole Vaidisova | Vancouver (2004) | 15 years, 3 months, 23 days |
| 7. Monica Seles | Houston (1989) | 15 years, 3 months, 23 days |
| 8. Gabriela Sabatini | Tokyo (1985) | 15 years, 5 months, 2 days |
| 9. Coco Gauff | Linz (2019) | 15 years, 7 months |
| 10. Anke Huber | Schenectady (1990) | 15 years, 8 months, 22 days |
Although Jovic is not young enough to be on this list, there is a fairly recent name in ninth spot in the form of Coco Gauff.
At just 15 years old, Gauff won her first title as a lucky loser in Linz after beating Jelena Ostapenko in the final.
Iva Jovic predicted to reach the top 10 of the WTA rankings next year
Jovic may not be one of the top 10 youngest title winners in history, but her quick rise up to the top 40 in the WTA rankings bodes well for her future.
That is certainly something that Rick Macci, who is the former coach of Serena Williams, appears to believe.
After seeing Jovic win the Guadalajara Open, Macci predicted her to continue rising up the rankings next year and backed her to break into the top 10.
Macci wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Iva Jovic age 17 is the real deal as mentally is cut from a different cloth. On top of that she hits the ball clean and can control time. Top ten is by year end 2026 and once there a permanent fix.”
Jovic has risen 37 places in the WTA rankings this week and is now at a career-high ranking of world number 36.
The teenager will now likely have her sights set on being seeded for the Australian Open next year, with her next tournament at the China Open in Beijing.
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