Emilio Nava, Iva Jovic win 2025 Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge

American rising stars Iva Jovic and Emilio Nava have earned singles main draw wild cards into the upcoming French Open by winning the USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge. The USTA and FFT have a reciprocal agreement in which main draw wild cards for the 2025 French Open and US Open are exchanged.

The 17-year-old Jovic finished the five-week Challenge with 142 points, earned by winning the USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Charlottesville, Va., (100 pts.) and reaching the second round at both the WTA 250 in Bogota (30 pts.) and the USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Bonita Springs, Fla. (12 pts.). Jovic's point total was enough to outlast a final-week push by former Roland Garros girls' singles champion Whitney Osuigwe, who could have won the Challenge on its final day by winning the Bonita Springs title. 

Above: Jovic at the US Open. Photo credit: Hameltion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Torrance, Calif., native Jovic has now earned wild cards into the last three Grand Slam singles main draws, after winning the USTA Girls' 18s national championship to enter the 2024 US Open and the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Playoff to get into the 2025 Australian Open. She reached the second round in both of those events.

Nava won the men's Challenge with 119 points, thanks to his performance at consecutive USTA Pro Circuit ATP Challenger events, winning the title in Sarasota, Fla., (75 pts.) and reaching the final in Tallahassee, Fla., (44 pts.) amid a 19-match win streak.

Above: Emilio Nava speaks with Florida Tennis contributor Dave "Koz" Kozlowski about his recent 19-match winning streak. Source: Dave "Koz" Kozlowski

Nava previously qualified for the French Open in 2023 and competed in the US Open main draw in 2022-23, pushing Casper Ruud to four sets in the first round after qualifying the latter year. 

The Challenge was contested over the last five weeks, with each player's top three points-earning results counting toward their final Challenge point total. Only clay-court events at the M25 and W35 level and above counted toward the Challenge. 

The USTA utilizes this Challenge format to award wild cards into the Australian, French and US Opens. Previous Americans to earn wild cards into the French Open via the Challenge and how far they advanced at Roland Garros include Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Emma Navarro, who won the women's Challenge in 2023 to make her Grand Slam debut outside of the U.S. 

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Source: USTA. Photo credit (top): si.robi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.