When tournament director Sunil Yajaman met Ivana Jorovic at the Youth Olympics in China earlier this year, he encouraged the Serb to take part in the QNet Open $50,000 ITF women’s tennis singles competition at the DLTA Complex here. The teenager and her coach Marko Djokovic were unsure that the player would find a spot in the main draw.
There were discussions over a possible wildcard — it wasn’t required in the end as the 17-year-old found a spot on the basis of her ranking — and Ivana agreed to play in the tournament. Eventually, it proved to be a wise decision.
On Saturday, Ivana won the singles title after a fairly comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over Barbara Haas.
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Both players were unseeded and playing a final at this level for the first time in their careers.
Both felt nervous at different points in the encounter too. But, from the beginning, there was little doubt over the identity of the champion.
It took former junior world No. 1 Ivana 75 minutes to confirm her superiority. There was hardly a look in for Barbara on Ivana’s service in the first set while the former was constantly threatened by the possibility of a break.
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As expected, the Austrian teenager preferred to play from the back of the court. This helped Ivana as not only did she break her opponent down by powerful hitting from the baseline; she also surprised Barbara through her sparingly employed drop shots.
A slight wobble meant the deficit was reduced to 2-4 but the 2014 French Open girls’ singles finalist kept troubling the Austrian thanks to the sheer depth and pace of her groundstrokes.
Although decided by the same margin, the second set was more competitive.
Barbara acknowledged the need to be more aggressive and occasionally found some rewards as well. Sadly for her, the change in approach made her error-prone as well.
The result:
Final: Ivana Jorovic (Srb) bt Barbara Haas (Aut) 6-2, 6-2.