Six-foot Mika Stojsavljevic showed she has a big future in tennis by winning the girls’ singles title at the US Open.
Andy Murray won the boys’ event here in 2004 while Heather Watson is the last British champion in New York back in 2009.
Now the Londoner, who has size 10 feet, has joined the celebrated list at the age of 15. She has become the youngest to win the girls’ title here since Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in 2006.
Stojsavljevic saw off Japanese left-hander Wakana Sonobe 6-4 6-4 in a rain-delayed final on Court 12 in 85 minutes.
She broke the No.7 seed’s serve three times before she took her second championship point when Sonobe sent a backhand long.
Ranked world No.33 in the junior rankings coming into the US Open, she shocked No. 1 seed Emerson Jones in the third round and then beat American Wimbledon junior champion Iva Jovic in the semi-finals.
After her superb win, she told Sky: “I am super happy and grateful to my coaches for this week and to my family supporting me from back home. It was obviously quite nervewracking serving for the match. I knew I just had to trust my serve and treat it like any other game. I think I did that quite well.”
Stojsavljevic, whose tennis idol is Maria Sharapova, added: “I love watching sabalenka i can relate to her most gamestyle wise, how she constructs points and finishes points.”
Stojsavljevic trains at the Loughborough National Academy and attends the private Amherst School.
Asked if she now intends to turn pro, she said: “I haven’t really thought that far yet. I’m just going year by year.”
She has a London-born Serbian father and a Polish mother. “I’ve always lived here in London and started playing when I was six with the LTA,” she said. “I speak both Serbian and Polish but mainly English at home.”