Miami open surprise: young tennis stars rise amidst rain-delayed delays

Miami’s fickle weather provided an unlikely backdrop for a burgeoning talent showcase at the Miami Open, as Learner Tien and Iva Jovic defied the odds and the downpour to stake their claims in the sport’s upper echelons.

A quiet prodigy and an unexpected surge

Twenty-year-old Learner Tien, a first-generation American from California’s Orange County foothills, was calmly demolishing an omelet in the players’ cafeteria – oblivious to the mounting buzz surrounding his rapid ascent. No fuss, no fanfare, just ravenous consumption and an understated confidence. A few hours later, Iva Jovic, a 18-year-old Serbian-Croatian immigrant from Southern California, seized a brief lull in the rain to sharpen her game, poised for her opening round.

Jovic’s journey to the WTA’s top 20 following a strong showing at the Australian Open is undeniably remarkable. Remarkably, she didn’t dedicate herself to tennis until the age of thirteen, a pragmatic decision spurred by the pandemic’s disruption of team Sports. “I didn’t do anything special,” her mother, Jelena, deadpans, recalling a childhood shadowed by the echoes of war.

But her innate abilities—a seemingly effortless power described by Andy Roddick as