Mumbai: Over the last couple of seasons, the Australian Open seems like the place to be for fresh American faces to break new ground in their fledgling pro journey. Last year, teen Learner Tien made his first Grand Slam fourth round after stunning fifth seed Daniil Medvedev in Round 2.
This year, teen Iva Jovic is into her first Grand Slam quarter-final after upsetting 7th seed Jasmine Paolini in Round 3 and backing it up with a dominant 6-0, 6-1 win over Yulia Putintseva on Sunday.
A year older, Tien’s also gone a step further this time, taking down the same man that turned into the teen’s most prized catch of 2025. Except, Medvedev looked like a fish out of water against the now 20-year-old left-hander in the 6-4, 6-0, 6-3 rout on Sunday.
The youngest men’s singles quarter-finalist in a decade at Melbourne Park, Tien is also the youngest American to reach a first Slam quarters since Andy Roddick in 2002.
Jovic, 18, is the youngest American to reach the women’s singles quarters at the season-opening major since Venus Williams in 1998.
This is a Happy Slam indeed for the two young Americans.
Let’s first talk about Jovic, given she’s made it to the last eight in just her sixth Slam. Two years ago, she won the girls’ doubles title at the 2024 Australian Open. On Tuesday, she will play world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka – who has a second teen test in as many rounds after beating Canadian 19-year-old Victoria Mboko, Jovic’s doubles partner in Melbourne – for a place in the women’s singles semi-final.
Her rise may seem meteoric, but it isn’t sudden. After breaking into the top 200 in 2024, Jovic strung a consistently solid 2025. It included winning a WTA 125 at Ilkley, competing in all four Slams, and upgrading her title CV with the WTA 500 Guadalajara. Ending the year ranked 35, she reached the semi-finals in Auckland and Hobart this month to arrive in Melbourne as a seeded world No.27.
Thus, despite her age and Slam inexperience, Jovic did not carry “an underdog feeling” through her run here. Nor any scars from last year, when she was blown away by Elena Rybakina in the second round that felt like a “slap in the face”.
“I’ve just evolved a lot as a player and person since that point,” Jovic said after Sunday’s win. “I’ve improved a lot throughout the off-season, and got my base level higher. Physically I’m a lot fitter, a lot stronger and my game has a lot more versatility now.”
That game, moulded by her Serbian father Bojan in California, is inherently attacking, even if some tips from Novak Djokovic to open up the court came in handy in her big win over Paolini. Yet, even a first top-10 victory wouldn’t make this level-headed teen get too carried away.
“Especially at a Slam, there’s a lot of people and things outside tennis… it’s hard to kind of get back down to earth,” Jovic said. “But I tried to reset as best as I could, knowing that there’s still a lot more work to be done.”
Jovic beat Putintseva in 53 minutes displaying some of the most clinical tennis of the week. Tien would soon follow with some of his own, against a Slam champion no less.
Seldom does Medvedev, no matter his dip from a few years ago, get completely outplayed through a contest.
Tien did that to him playing an “unbelievable match”, as Medvedev analysed, where he won 11 consecutive games from the end of the first set till 4-0 in the third to hand the Russian his first bagel (6-0) in a Slam in 451 sets.
Using the lefty serve, angle and topspin to leave Medvedev almost clueless, Tien had 14 fewer unforced errors and 18 more winners than the three-time Australian Open finalist against whom he now holds a 3-1 record.
Much like Jovic, Tien entered Melbourne in form. He captured the Next Gen ATP Finals title in December, has won 14 of his past 17 matches and will now feature in his first Slam quarters with world No.3 Alexander Zverev.
The last Australian Open was no flash in the pan for Tien. This Australian Open also doesn’t feel like one for Jovic.
“The Slams are where you want to do well,” Jovic said. “So, being here (in the quarters) gives me the belief that I can be at that highest level of tennis.”