Iva Jovic arrived at the Credit One Charleston Open as an 18-year-old still refining parts of her game that have powered a swift climb up the rankings. After sliding through an opening-round victory, the Serbian-American was blunt about how much more she believes she can reach.

“Honestly, I didn’t even know what clay was until I was 13,” she said, recalling a late introduction to the surface after growing up in Southern California. Jovic has leaned into that learning curve as the tour turns to clay. “I’ve just been doing movement drills every single day, right?” Jovic said. “So, I haven’t really played a ton on clay in my life, but when it’s clay season, I’m working on my movement every single day.

“So, it’s improved rapidly because of just the volume of movement that I’ve been doing. There’s no secret there. You just gotta do the drills.”

Her rise over the past year has been dramatic. A year ago she was ranked No. 150 and playing a smaller WTA event in Bogota. Since then she won a WTA 500 title in Guadalajara last fall and reached the Australian Open quarterfinals in January, a run that helped her make her Top 20 debut earlier this season. She is currently listed at world No. 16.

“I don’t feel that I’m close to maximizing myself yet,” she said, acknowledging both the progress and the work ahead. Jovic frequently cites Novak Djokovic among her idols and compares elements of her developing style to players such as Belinda Bencic, Jessica Pegula and potential third-round opponent Bianca Andreescu.

She also offered a clear sense of process and self-scrutiny. “I think a lot of tennis players, we’re very stubborn and can be a little bit extreme because we’re just perfectionists, right, and tennis is one of those sports where it’s physically impossible to be perfect and to not miss.

“I try to identify who am I as a player, what is my game style, and then you just build around that. And I try to just emulate certain people, think about players that have been extremely successful in this sport and what do they have that I don’t have—someone who plays similar to you, but maybe you don’t have all those little fine tunes that they have.”

Against Alycia Parks, whom she faced in Bogota a year ago, Jovic highlighted tactical adjustments after a straight-sets win, and described areas she will continue to sharpen.

Dayana Yastremska confirmed a short-term coaching trial with Alexandra Stevenson after her second-round exit at the Credit One Charleston Open. Observers noticed Stevenson working with Yastremska during the week; the pairing stems from Pam Shriver’s newly launched Yonex Mindset Performance Program, which introduced the two.

Shriver announced the YMPP at the start of 2026. The program has already been used by Donna Vekic, whom Shriver helped through a career peak that included a Wimbledon semifinal and Olympic silver medal. Vekic was also linked to the program this week in Charleston as Shriver was seen in the stands for the qualifier’s first-round win over Ajla Tomljanovic.

Yastremska, herself a powerful baseliner, described how the trial came about after meetings in Indian Wells and training in Miami. “In Indian Wells, Pam suggested that I try with Alexandra and that she could bring me some experience and help to my game,” Yastremska told me after a three-set defeat to Belinda Bencic on Wednesday. “I came to Miami and before the Miami Open, we trained together.

“She’s currently working with a junior player and she’s under contract with her until the end of the year. So, I don’t know how it’s going to go in the future. Maybe she’ll be able to help me some weeks. We still need to discuss all of that. We will see how the schedule will be made, so I cannot say anything about it. But I did enjoy this week and the days before the tournament, practicing with her and getting experience.”

Yastremska said she still needs to discuss details with Shriver. “I need to have some conversations with Pam tonight,” she told me. “Today, she had to be on the neutral side because Belinda is also from Yonex. I feel like they’re really invested in their job of helping players. They’re trying to bring all the experience and all they’ve learned on their life journeys to explain and help us in some ways. It’s nice and interesting.”

Now 25, Yastremska has struggled for consistency since her breakthrough run to the 2024 Australian Open semifinals as a qualifier. She pushed Bencic hard in Charleston, rallying from a set and 4-2 down and nearly erasing a 4-1 deficit in the decider before bowing out in three sets.

Donna Vekic used a return to Charleston to arrest a slide in form and to reset ahead of the clay season. After an apparel switch to Ellesse and the tour’s marketing photoshoot at Indian Wells, the former Wimbledon semifinalist edged Ajla Tomljanovic, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, in a match that stretched the Croat’s patience and resolve.

The victory followed a mixed start to 2026 that has seen Vekic slip from a career-high of No. 17 to No. 79 at the end of last year and fall out of the Top 100 for the first time since 2022. She defended her level while diagnosing the fine margins where matches have turned away from her.

“I’ve definitely had a good level of tennis from the beginning of the year,” Vekic said. “I lost the first round to Alex [Eala] in Auckland and then I lost to Mirra [Andreeva] in Australia. Those two were really tough matches but I played really well. I made the finals [at a WTA 125k] in Manila, too, so I’m playing really good tennis. I just need to believe in myself a bit more in these tough situations in matches.”

Her approach has been pragmatic. After missing the Miami Open main draw she stayed in North America, working in a Boca Raton practice block and accepting support from former coach Pam Shriver through Yonex’s Mindset and Performance Program. Training included practice sets with Tomljanovic and off-court breaks such as horseback riding in Wellington.

“It’s always challenging, it’s always tough,” she said of her latest comeback. “I’m definitely more towards the end of my career. The way I look at it is just to give it my best. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, I’ve had a pretty good career with a lot to be proud of.”

Vekic acknowledged the need for freer tennis and less tension in big moments. She celebrated meeting a friend in a first-round draw with a simple dinner on Daniel Island and then converted that momentum into her first green-clay win since 2015, joking about the surface: “It’s faster than the red clay, and it’s green. So, I try to imagine it’s a grass court!”

“I’m trying to play a little bit more freely. Sometimes when you want it so bad, you have the opposite effect. You get tighter, more nervous. So, I’m just trying to relax a bit. Donna Vekic