Jovic wins Guadalajara Open, first WTA title, youngest Top 50 at 17

Seventeen-year-old American Iva Jovic captured her first WTA Tour title Sunday at the Guadalajara Open, defeating Colombia’s Emiliana Arango 6-4, 6-1 and vaulting into the Top 50 and to a career-high world No. 36. The unseeded teenager’s run in Mexico also made her the youngest player on the WTA Tour’s Top 50 this season, supplanting Russia’s Mirra Andreeva.

Jovic closed out the final in 95 minutes, converting six of 11 break-point opportunities and saving six of nine, while winning roughly 67 percent of her first-serve points, match statistics showed. Arango, who reached her first tour-level final in Guadalajara, struggled with illness in the second set, but drew praise from Jovic after the match. “You showed so much fight and gave the people a show,” Jovic said during the trophy ceremony. “It’s not easy to start out on tour when you’re young... but people like Emiliana make it easier.”

The title capped a week in which Jovic, ranked 73 before the event, beat the likes of Camila Osorio, Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva and Nikola Bartunkova. She had already collected momentum this year by winning the Ilkley Open, a WTA 125 event, and reaching the third round in Cincinnati as a...