Petar Jovic nearly didn\u2019t make it on time.<\/p>\n
After circling for parking around Fawkner Park, the Victorian State Final venue, he arrived flustered and late, one of the last players through the gate. Around him, more than a hundred hopefuls were already stretching, rallying and trying to settle nerves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite overwhelming,\u201d Jovic says. \u201cAt this sort of level, you\u2019re not used to seeing 150 or 200 people there.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were 108 entries that day. No warm-ups. No easing into the contest. Just rock, paper, scissors, walk to your end and play one point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have many expectations at the time,\u201d Jovic says. \u201cI thought, \u2018It\u2019s one point, anything can happen. I could go all the way through, or I could lose straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went all the way through.<\/p>\n
By the end of the afternoon, Jovic had won the Victorian State Final of the AO 1 Point Slam, earning his place at Rod Laver Arena for a shot at winning a million dollars against some of the best players in the world, including Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka.<\/p>\n
Jovic strings and tests racquets at Tennis Lab at Melbourne Park and is no stranger to the professional environment. Last year, close friend Omar Jasika won the 1 Point Slam held on Kia Arena, beating Priscilla Hon in the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know a couple of the pros actually missed their serve and bombed out,\u201d he says. \u201cSo truly, anything can happen. That\u2019s the beauty of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the step up is immense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tension is going to be amplified,\u201d Jovic says. \u201cA full stadium, let alone being on that court\u2026 that\u2019s stuff you can only dream of. And then being in the presence of all these players. You\u2019ve got world number ones, all the top players.\u201d<\/p>\n
If he wins the toss, his plan is simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d go for my serve,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s one of my favourite shots, my serve and my forehand. You don\u2019t want to attack too much and take risks because the margins \u2013 you could miss, and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A left-hander by trade, Jovic describes himself as an aggressive, versatile player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to come to the net,\u201d he says. \u201cAny chance I can come to the net, I\u2019ll take it. If I do need to hang back and drag the rally out, I can do that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jovic has competed on the Futures tour and knows first-hand the financial and mental grind of trying to make it on the professional circuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s only a limited number of these Futures,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to make the most of it. We\u2019re so far away from the rest of the world that if we travel overseas, we don\u2019t have the luxury of just going home for a week or two. Air tickets are like two-and-a-half thousand dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jovic hasn\u2019t yet earned professional ranking points, but he\u2019s stayed close to the elite game. For the past two years, he has been a hitting partner at the Australian Open and is in demand as a left-hander.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t many of us,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen a left-hander makes a deep run (in the main draw), you know you\u2019ll get an opportunity to hit with a really good player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those opportunities have seen him share the court with Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Holger Rune, and Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m hitting with them, I can hold my own,\u201d he says. \u201cThey don\u2019t really fluctuate playing high or low tennis. They just do the better stuff for longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jovic\u2019s story is also deeply shaped by family and heritage. He is Serbian by background, born in Australia to parents whose parents migrated from Serbia. The language, culture and love of sport have always been part of home, and not surprisingly, his favourite player is Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad always loved tennis,\u201d he says. \u201cWatching Wimbledon, the Aussie Open.\u201d<\/p>\n
His father, Dragan, a builder by trade, introduced him to the game at Cranbourne Tennis Club when he was six. Jovic was a late developer, progressing significantly only in the past five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thought if I keep showing up and doing the work, I\u2019ll get recognised,\u201d he says. \u201cI like to feel like I\u2019ve caught up to all of those guys at the top of the junior level.\u201d<\/p>\n
He plays State Grade for North Ringwood and now trains largely with his father, who has built a deep understanding of the game over years of watching, learning and supporting his son. \u201cThey\u2019re over the moon about the 1 Point Slam,\u201d Jovic says.<\/p>\n
Now living in Malvern East, Jovic is preparing for an arena he knows, but not like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sort of a familiar setting, but then again it isn\u2019t,\u201d he says of the Melbourne Park environment. \u201cWhen we\u2019re training, it\u2019s just the two of us compared to the thousands that will probably come and watch us.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the million dollars came his way, Jovic knows what he\u2019d do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI might try and have a crack at the pro tour,\u201d he says. \u201cTravel, play and probably go on a nice holiday with the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are dream matchups, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to have a crack at Sinner or Alcaraz,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re the two best players in the world. If it\u2019s one point and I managed to win, I\u2019d like to say I beat one of them! That\u2019s just good for bragging.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, the focus is narrower.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll just try to get through the first point, get the nerves out,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s what I felt at the state final. I was nervous before we even started, and then I started to feel better as the points went on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI thought, \u2018It\u2019s one point, anything can happen. I could go all the way through, or I could lose straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6430,"featured_media":43210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,57,1],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-43209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-competitive-play","category-news","tag-competitive-play"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}