Iva Jovic defeated Jasmine Paolini again on Thursday, October 22, to reach the quarterfinals of the WTA 500 event in Ningbo. The No. 4 seed recovered from an early deficit in the opening set and completed a 6-4, 6-3 victory in 1 hour and 22 minutes.
An immediate response in the opening set
Paolini moved ahead 3-1, but Jovic began finding more depth on return and broke the Italian twice to win five of the next six games. That run turned the early deficit into a 6-4 first set.
The American moved two breaks ahead at 4-1 in the second set. Paolini narrowed the gap to 4-3, but Jovic stopped the comeback by holding serve before breaking once more in the final game.
A second straight win in the rivalry
It was Jovic's second consecutive victory over Paolini in 2026. The American also beat the Italian in the third round of the Australian Open, and their head-to-head record is now level at 2-2.
The Ningbo run has carried Jovic into her seventh WTA quarterfinal of the season. According to the WTA, she has recorded 42 tour-level wins in 2026 — 28 of them on hard courts — and earned the 20th Top 50 victory of her career.
The embedded highlights are from this match and were published by the WTA's official channel.
