Shaya Jovanovic is just 13 years old, but she has proven one thing at this young stage of her career – she doesn’t shy away from the biggest and most tense moments that take place in latter stage matches of big tournaments.

At last year’s Southern California Junior Sectionals, the Los Angeles westside resident Jovanovic blitzed through six matches as the third-seeded player in the Girls’ 12s without dropping a set, including a semifinal win over No. 2 Ava Penn and downing top-seeded Julia Seversen in the final, avenging a straight-set loss to Seversen a few months before at a L3 in Irvine.

“It was one of my biggest wins, for sure,” said Jovanovic of her first Sectionals title. “I remember it was really hot and the matches were really long. There were photos being taken of me and I recall how competitive and tense everything was. It was a grind.”

Jovanovic, who turned 13 in August, graduated to the 14s and in the fall won another Sectional title in doubles.

Looking to test her skills outside of the juniors, Jovanovic made the bold decision to enter the SoCal Pro Series Pre-Qualifying tournament for the upcoming ITF $15,000 Futures level event at the Kramer Club in Rolling Hills. She proceeded to beat high school junior Sage Loudon and a senior Lily Kresser before falling to No. 2 Tricia Mar, a 30-year-old competitor twice as old as Joanovic.

“That was my first ITF pro-level event and I wasn’t sure what to expect,” said Jovanovic, who is coming off a third-place finish in doubles and a fifth in singles at an L2 in Roseville.

Jovanovic Shaya’s father, Dr. Sascha Jovanovic, said his daughter picked up a racket for the first time at age 4, and immediately fell in love with the game. He is a longtime competitive tennis player, as well as accomplished skier, a hobby Shaya also shares with him. 

Sascha Jovanovic is originally from Amsterdam in the Netherlands and is considered a global expert in Implant Dentistry and one of the founders of guided bone regeneration (GBR) and Esthetic Implant Surgery. Shaya’s mother is full Taiwanese and was raised in Brazil.

“For a young player like her to be able to participate in the SoCal Pro Series pulls her out of her community, out of the juniors where she is used to playing,” said Sascha Jovanovic. “It was an incredible opportunity. She was able to hold her own against top ITF players and it gave her a nice reference point to see what she has to continue to work on. It was just a great experience.”

As an eighth-grader, Jovanovic recently finished up a year being home-schooled and is looking forward to attending Palisades High in the fall, although she is undecided about playing on the high school team at this time.

“My long-term goal is to play Division I tennis in college at one of the big schools,” said Jovanovic, who recently started training with the USTA National coaches in Carson and also works with noted SoCal pro Frank Giampaolo and is a member at Mountain Gate Country Club. “My short-term goal it’s just to keep on developing and working on getting better.”