Iva Jovic Beats Eala 6-2, 6-2 to Reach Jovic Tennis Quarterfinal

Iva Jovic handled Alexandra Eala 6-2, 6-2 at the HSBC Championships, and jovic tennis now has its sharpest result of the week. The No. 6 seed finished the match in 76 minutes and moved into her first tour-level quarterfinal on grass.

Jovic and Eala at Queen's

Jovic won with 26 winners against nine unforced errors. Eala finished with 12 winners and 19 unforced errors, a gap that kept the match on Jovic's terms from start to finish.

The result sent Jovic into her fifth quarterfinal of 2026. It also gave her a second straight win over Eala in three weeks, after the pair met at Roland Garros, where Jovic won 6-4, 6-2.

Eala's Run Meets Jovic

Eala arrived with momentum after a six-match winning streak and last week's Birmingham WTA 125 title, but Jovic turned the rematch quickly and never let the score tighten. The two have known each other since the 2022 US Open, where Eala won the junior girls' singles title and teamed with Mirra Andreeva to beat Jovic and Shannon Lam 6-2, 6-2 in girls' doubles.

Afterward, Jovic said, "I wish we could play at later stages of the tournaments," and added, "Hopefully when both of our rankings go up, we will be on other sides of the brackets until semis or finals." She also said, "There is no bad blood," and, "We were just talking in the locker room. It's all good. We're back to being friends now off the court."

Anisimova Awaits Jovic

Jovic's next match is against Amanda Anisimova, the No. 2 seed and last year's finalist, and it will be their first meeting. The quarterfinal gives Jovic another step in a season that has already produced five quarterfinal runs, with this one standing out as her first at tour level on grass.

Elsewhere in the draw, Belinda Bencic withdrew because of a right ankle injury, and Kamilla Rakhimova replaced her. Rakhimova will face Harriet Dart in the second round.