Bojana Jovanovski (SRB): Junior Career High Ranking -#5
WTA Career Ranking High - #286These notes are taken from her match against Laura Robson in the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon Junior Event.
Jovanovski has the exact same look and build as Victoria Azarenka when she first burst onto the scene.
She plays like an impatient ball basher most of the time, and hits a very clean, flat ball off the ground. She hits some explosive winners from time to time, yet lacks real, raw power. Similar maybe to Azarenka in that respect aswell. Some footwork problems are evident, and her defensive skills are simply not up to scratch.
Her backhand is somewhat more consistent than her forehand. She doesn't hit as many explosive winners off it, but doesn't miss as many either. She needs time to set it up though, and her lazy footwork can often let her down off both sides.
Her short angled forehand inside-out over the highest part of the net is really quite breathtaking. It's extremely low % but she makes it a surprising amount of time, despite going over the high part of the net on pretty much each one she tries. Her forehand however, tends to break down in high pace baseline exchanges because she often catches it late, she has to improvise, rushing her swing and it end ends up flying into the trams. Improved footwork would probably alleviate this problem to a certain extent.
Her defensive game is similar to Rus's in the sense that she's fine in left-right-left-right baseline exchanges, yet struggles to ever get back into the rally once she's on the defense. Her determination to run everything down is evident but she just isin't particularly fast, and doesn't deal with deep low balls very well. Again, similar to Rus she really struggles with any sudden shifts in angles. Unlike Rus however, Bojanovski's shouldn't really have to retreat so far behind the baseline when she's not dictating play. Her swings are fairly compact, and she doesn't appear to have any notable timing issues, so maybe in a year or two this little kink shall be ironed out of her game.
Her return-of-serve is a definite improvement on Kerkhove, Hercog and Rus. Makes a high percentage of returns (even against lefty Robson whose serve can be almost untouchable against many at junior level). She's not exceptionally aggressive off of it, but gives away few points with cheap unforced errors at the same time. It doesn't really set up her game though.
Her 1st serve serve is very flat strike. It's not huge but it's no slouch and actually had something of a game plan behind it, in the deuce court at least. The main plan was to hit the slider out-wide, get a mid court ball, on her backhand usually and go for the cross-court winner. Her best serve is probably big, flat one down the T in the deuce court. That's where all her aces come from. Apart from Robson's wild return-of-serve errors however, her serve didn't really get her THAT many cheap points. 2nd serve is Camille Pin-esque(verging on club level). One of the reasons why she stands so far behind the baseline at times is probably because of her 2nd serve leaves her in terrible court position most of the time.
There was little evidence that Jovanovski has any sort of a mid-court game as she barely ventured into he net. From what I've hear, she was absolutely clueless on court in her doubles matches throughout the week.
Bottom Line on Jovanovski:
A Poor man's Azarenka, in my honest opinion. Some of her shot making is scintillating but undoubtedly low percentage coupled with some lazy footwork, is a bit of a danger. Her serve isin't big enough currently to rely on alot of cheap points, so will have to rely on sheer ball bashing quality more often than not to win matches, yet right now she just doesn't have the raw firepower. Can still improve surely, and looks relatively tenacious, but we'll see. Her game style is the kind the WTA tour needs more of. I can't really predict a future ranking, but I'd like to think the top 50 is achievable.
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