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It’s the week after the US Open. And either the top players aren’t playing, or were headed to Shenzhen, China for the Billie Jean King Cup finals, or just wanted a breather.

When those weeks come up, it’s really tough for the tournaments. It’s also a golden opportunity for other players to seize the day and earn some big points.

And that’s what happened.

In Guadalajara, 17-year-old American Iva Jovic won the WTA 500 title, with the points and prize money that go with.

In Sao Paulo – a tournament that appeared on the schedule earlier this year and marks a return of the WTA to that city for the first time in more than 20 years, an even bigger longshot: 19-year-old French player Tiantsoa (Sarah) Rakotomanga Rajaonah wins the WTA 250 tournament.

It was only her third WTA-level event.

Let’s meet these two.

Jovic long considered a potential star

The San Diego native turns 18 on Dec. 6 (this is about all the WTA has on her at the moment – for a player in top 75, not that surprising but still disappointing).

So she’s still of junior age. But she left that behind after making the semifinals in the US Open juniors last year. She also made the semis at junior Wimbledon, the final at Roehampton the week before, the quarters at junior Roland Garros and the semifinals of the Orange Bowl in Dec. 2023.

(Notably, she lost to Canadian Victoria Mboko, who is a year older, in the third round of the US Open juniors in 2022).

So, in short, she never “got” her junior Slam. She didn’t win any big titles. But she made a good run in nearly all of the tournaments she played and got to the No. 2 junior ranking after last year’s US Open juniors.

Jovic played her first pro event in July 2022, when she was still 14. And she made the final.

By March 2023 (15), she was playing a junior event at Indian Wells and got a taste of the big place. Here’s what she looked like then.

She didn’t win it; she made the semis, losing to then reigning WImbledon junior champion Clervie Ngounoue.

Jovic won her first pro title, a $25K in Redding California, in Oct. 2023. She was on a wild card – and she still didn’t have a ranking.

She appeared on the charts for the first time on Mar. 20 2023, at No. 1064.

By March 2024, ranked No. 659, she got a wild card into the qualifying at Indian Wells and got just three games from Taylor Townsend. By August, with a wild card into the main draw at the US Open, she upset Magda Linette in the first round before taking Ekaterina Alexandrova to 7-5 in the third set in the second round. That helped her break into the top 300.

A run through the American ITFs that fall earned her the USTA’s reciprocal wild card, and a main-draw spot at the 2025 Australian Open.

Here she is practicing with Canadian Leylah Fernandez before the tournament.

Jovic defeated clay-courter Nuria Parrizas Dias in the first round, before Elena Rybakina took care of business.

The braces were still a thing.

At Indian Wells, with another wild card, she beat Julia Grabher in the first round before taking No. 6 Jasmine Paolini to 6-3 in the third in the second round.

That got her into the top 150, and she earned another USTA wild card into Roland Garros this spring.

A few weeks later, she won the WTA 125 on grass at Ilkley, beating Canadian Rebecca Marino in the final. That got her into the top 100 for the first time.

Then, onto Wimbledon qualifying, where she won three matches and qualified for a main draw for the first time without a wild card.

And now, Guadalajara.

Here she is, talking about the victory in Guadalajara (audio provided by the tournament).

OpenCourt · Iva Jovic wins in Guadalajara

Rakotomanga Rajaonah out of nowhere

It’s a mouthful: Tiantsoa (Sarah) Rakotomanga Rajaonah, born in Madagascar (as you can probably tell by the name), and following in the proud footsteps of Zarah Rajafimahatratra. A French citizen since birth, she arrived in France aged six. She mostly trains in the town of Plaisir.

A clay aficionado, she jumped into the top 200 for the first time after making the final of a $100,000 ITF in Biarritz, France in June, where she didn’t have to beat anyone in the top 300.

But at No. 214, she was able to get straight into the draw at the Sao Paulo Open. And after nearly going out in the first round, she didn’t drop a set the rest of the way.

(“Nearly” is underplaying it – Rakotomanga was down 5-0 in the third set, and saved three match points).

She posted wins over five players with higher rankings. And – at least rankings-wise, it wasn’t a much easier road than Jovic had in Guadalajara.

Although Jovic played far more experienced players on the whole.

Just three weeks ago, Open Court watched most of her first-round match in qualifying at the US Open, which was only her second major and the first on her own ranking. She got a wild card into Roland Garros earlier in the year.

(We’ll have a fun piece about that match on Open Court tomorrow. Look for it).

The funniest part of that match was that an older man in a wheelchair, sitting right at the fence, badgered both she and her opponent Guiomar Maristany about what countries they hailed from. Right as they were getting their racquets ready and preparing to go for the coin toss and trying to, you know, focus.

Finally, they both answered him. (That’s the first pic in this photo gallery).

This was just Rakotomanga Rajaonah’s third WTA-level main draw: Roland Garros this year, and the WTA 250 in Rouen in April (where she qualified and made the quarterfinals). Given how many French players get wild cards into so many events, it’s pretty clear that she’s outside the “favorites'” circle.

It’ll be interesting to see where she goes next.

WTA Rankings Report – As of Sept. 15, 2025

Jovic the youngest teen

Jovic and Rakotomanga are among five teens who have won WTA titles this year: Mirra Andreeva, Maya Joint and Mboko in Montreal are the other two.

Jovic is the youngest of them.

She jumps again in the WTA rankings on Monday – up to No. 36 and certainly in range to think about being seeded in Melbourne in January.

That’s a long, long way from going in on the USTA wild card.

As for Rakotomanga, she’s the second Frenchwoman to make an unexpected splash this season, after Lois Boisson was a surprise semifinalist at Roland Garros.

This effort, happening as it did so far away from home, and at a smaller event, should mean the spotlight on her won’t be nearly as fierce as it has been on Boisson.

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