Mika Stojsavljevic: Fifteen-year-old US Open girls champion denied first WTA win in losing thriller to Moyuka Uchijima | Tennis News

Fifteen-year-old British hopeful Mika Stojsavljevic was denied a first-ever WTA win as she lost a thrilling match against Moyuka Uchijima 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (8-6) in Tokyo.

Stojsavljevic is the reigning US Open girls champion but was handed a tough draw at the Pan Pacific Open against Japan’s Uchijima, the world No 57 – a whole 576 places higher than her in the WTA rankings.

The teenager, who found herself a break of serve up in all three sets, had to save five match points in total through the first-round contest before finally succumbing to the sixth.

Three of those match points were saved in the second set as Stojsavljevic battled back to force a decider, taking the tie-break 9-7.

The Briton then raced out of the blocks and into a 5-2 lead in the third set, before she was broken, crucially, when serving for the match, with Uchijima going on to take the deciding tie-break and the match in just under three hours on court.

Had she won, Stojsavljevic would have risen almost 200 places in the WTA rankings and secured a second-round meeting with top seed and Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng.

What’s coming up on Sky Sports Tennis?

• Erste Bank Open, Vienna – ATP 500 (October 21-27)
• Swiss Indoors, Basel – ATP 500 (October 21-27)
• Guangzhou Open, China – WTA 250 (October 21-27)
• Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis, Tokyo – WTA 500 (October 21-27)
• Hong Kong Tennis Open – WTA 250 (October 28 – November 3)
• Jiangxi Open – WTA 250 (October 28 – November 3)
• Merida Open Akron – WTA 250 (October 28 – November 3)
• Rolex Paris Masters – ATP 1000 (October 28 – November 3)

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