{"id":67183,"date":"2026-09-06T17:38:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T17:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/67183\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T17:38:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T17:38:22","slug":"iva-jovic-ends-alex-ealas-us-open-run-will-face-coco-gauff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/67183\/","title":{"rendered":"Iva Jovic ends Alex Eala&#8217;s US Open run, will face Coco Gauff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK &#8212; <a data-player-guid=\"fb4a5abc-e29b-3269-bcec-2da93f349e66\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=14311\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Iva Jovic<\/a> needed more than three hours to end Alex Eala&#8217;s run at the US Open. <a data-player-guid=\"ca44c2b0-9dea-ab40-2541-b50a4442ff8e\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=3626\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coco Gauff<\/a> is up next with a spot in the quarterfinals at stake.<\/p>\n<p>Jovic beat Eala 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 in a three-hour, three-set, back-and-forth showcase of two of tennis&#8217; emerging young stars inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That felt like a marathon, and I felt like I lost my sanity five times over to win that match,&#8221; Jovic said. &#8220;But it&#8217;s really worth it for this feeling. I&#8217;m usually not one that shows that many emotions, but this one really meant a lot to me. It&#8217;s everything to have another match here at the US Open.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The American acknowledged the crowd not always being on her side against Eala, a fan favorite from the Philippines whose fervent following has become one of the biggest storylines in the sport. But Jovic rallied from down 4-2 in the third set and got a hearty ovation after finishing it off and falling to the court.<\/p>\n<p>Jovic, 18, has made another deep run at a Grand Slam after reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon and the French Open and making the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. She lost to <a data-player-guid=\"63f9c1e5-14bd-003f-c269-31543931ad1d\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2113\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jessica Pegula<\/a> in London, <a data-player-guid=\"4b888d90-ad54-6a80-8830-39cfcad473a1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2789\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Naomi Osaka<\/a> in Paris and <a data-player-guid=\"c91d133a-526a-ea8d-654c-7ef6915ad63b\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=3038\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> in Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>Now, she and Gauff are among the five U.S. women&#8217;s players left, along with Pegula, <a data-player-guid=\"a4287837-099c-33e5-009f-6ab8763da8a4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2114\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Taylor Townsend<\/a> and <a data-player-guid=\"b55981dd-e99e-fcab-a794-57cf7be56e4d\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=3785\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emma Navarro<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously, there&#8217;s a lot of pressure here as an American trying to do well,&#8221; Gauff said after beating <a data-player-guid=\"f1a3f8c2-748d-dce9-dd7f-6aae162f47b7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=3157\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cristina Bucsa<\/a> earlier Saturday. &#8220;Everybody wants to win this tournament, but I think for Americans it&#8217;s even more special.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/tennis\/story\/_\/id\/49837907\/zheng-rallies-keys-osaka-rallies-third-set-us-open\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788716302_157_r1711886_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/tennis\/story\/_\/id\/49839555\/taylor-fritz-blows-2-set-lead-falls-francisco-cerundolo-us-open\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788716302_511_r1711986_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<p>Gauff, 22, is four victories away from her second US Open title, three years since winning her first. Also the French Open champion last year, she is in her prime at a time when more rivals around her age, such as Jovic and Eala, are coming to the forefront.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It just feels good socially having people I can text if you want to hang out, go to dinner, do something and it not feel awkward,&#8221; said Gauff, who felt lonely in her early years when she was the youngest player around. &#8220;I feel much happier now, I think, at this phase on tour just having people around my age being successful. We can all share the ups and downs together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gauff facing Jovic on Monday guarantees at least one American among the final eight players. Jovic hopes she can bring her best with the spotlight even brighter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to be more than happy to just bring this fight and this energy, and whatever happens, then I can leave with my head high,&#8221; Jovic said. &#8220;She&#8217;s playing some unbelievable tennis and a really great person, so it&#8217;s going to be an amazing match.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK &#8212; Iva Jovic needed more than three hours to end Alex Eala&#8217;s run at the US&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[185],"class_list":["post-67183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-coco-gauff","tag-coco-gauff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}