Mika Stojsavljevic reaches Wimbledon junior semi-finals at the age of 14

By Sports Desk July 12, 2023

Fourteen-year-old Mika Stojsavljevic is among a trio of British juniors to make it through to the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

Stojsavljevic, who is ranked 282nd and making her Wimbledon debut, followed up her second-round victory over fourth seed Lucciana Perez Alarcon by taking out Australian 13th seed Emerson Jones 6-1 7-5.

“I think it went really well, especially in the first set, I felt like I was just cruising, really comfortable out there,” said Stojsavljevic. “It was a bit of a surprise, I thought I’d be a little bit more nervous but I was quite chill.”

Stojsavljevic, a tall, powerful hitter who grew up idolising Maria Sharapova, took confidence into Wimbledon from a close contest against leading American junior Clervie Ngounoue last week.

“I had five match points against number two in the world,” she said. “I know the level I can produce, it’s just if I can produce it at the right time.”

Joining the 14-year-old, who next meets Slovakian fifth seed Renata Jamrichova, in the last eight are 18-year-old Ranah Stoiber and 17-year-old Henry Searle.

Stoiber is in her final year of juniors and is bidding to reach a slam final for the first time having lost in the semi-finals of the Australian Open to breakout star Mirra Andreeva.

She defeated Italian Francesca Pace 6-3 6-4 and will next face Czech Nikola Bartunkova, who saw off Britain’s Mingge Xu 6-3 6-2.

Fourteen-year-old Hannah Klugman, who is widely considered the most exciting young British talent, lost 6-4 6-4 to Japan’s Sayaka Ishii.

Searle was the only British boy to reach the third round in singles and he matched his run to the French Open quarter-finals by defeating France’s Arthur Gea 6-4 6-2.

Searle, from Wolverhampton, took out top seed Juan Carlos Prado Angelo in the first round and will face eighth seed Joao Fonseca for a place in the last four.

It is the first time Britain has had three singles quarter-finalists in the juniors since 2018, which matches the all-time best. The trio all train at the Lawn Tennis Association’s national academy in Loughborough.

Laura Robson is the last British player to win a junior singles title here back in 2008, while Liam Broady and Jack Draper have both lost in finals since then.

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