Mika Stojsavljevic of Great Britain won the US Open Junior Girls’ Singles title, while several other players made an impression in the tournament.
Iva Jovic, a 16-year-old from Torrance, California won the USTA National Girls’ 18 singles and the doubles with another 16-year-old, Tyra Grant of Orlando, Florida. (In 2021, Ashlyn Krueger, at 17, swept the championships winning the singles and the doubles with 16-year-old Robin Montgomery.)
The victories earned Jovic a US Open Women’s Singles spot and the duo a US Open Women’s Doubles wild card.
In the Women’s Singles first round Jovic defeated Magda Linette of Poland, who is twice her age, 6-4, 6-3.
With that triumph she duplicated Mirra Andreeva’s effort as a 16-year-old in New York last year.
In the second round, Ekaterina Alexandrova escaped with a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over Jovic.
Besides the US National Girls’ Doubles, Jovic and Grant combined to win the junior titles at The Championships and the Australian Open this year.
But in the first round of the Women’s Doubles in New York, Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Irina Khromacheva were 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 stronger.
In the Junior Girls’ Singles competition, Jovic came up 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 short in losing to Stojsavljevic in the semifinals. Stojsavljevic went on to become the first junior from her country to win the title since Heather Watson in 2009.
When asked about her own US Open achievements, Jovic said, “Surprised but not surprised…”
At Roland Garros, Jovic was a 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 quarterfinalist to Laura Samson of the Czech Republic. Then Australian Emerson Jones was 7-5, 6-1 victorious over Jovic in The Championships Girls’ semifinals at Wimbledon.
In the US Girls’ final, the tall 15-year-old Stojsavljevic defeated world No. 10 Wakana Sonobe of Japan, 6-4, 6-4, winning a telling 91% of first service points (and hitting one serve 110 mph /177 kmh).
After receiving her trophy she said, “I think I’m going back to school on Tuesday. I have my [General Certificates of Secondary Education] this year and obviously it’s important to get those done and we’ll see after that.”
Stojsavljevic teamed with compatriot Mimi Yu and lost a 7-5, 2-6, 10-8 quarterfinal encounter with Malak El Allami from Morocco and Norwegian Emily Sartz-Lunde, who proceeded to win the US Open Girls’ Doubles title. The champions are college freshmen… Allami at Colombia University and Sartz-Lunde at the University of Michigan.
Source: Instagram
Australia held the first Grand Slam Junior Championships in 1930. Since then, besides Watson and Stojsavljevic, Laura Robson at The Championships in 2008 is the only other girl from Great Britain to win a junior singles title at a major.
Completing the historical summary, neither an individual nor a team from the country has triumphed at a Junior Girls’ Grand Slam Doubles event.
Wild cards Annika and Kristina, left-handed/right-handed 14-year-old identical Penickova twins, were also spotlighted at the US Open Junior Girls’ tournament.
Kristina lost to Wakana Sonobe of Japan, 7-5, 6-4 in the third round.
Annika was a quarterfinalist, losing 6-2, 7-6 to Stojsavljevic.
Photo: Peter Staples/ USTA
In doubles, Iva Ivanova of Bulgaria and Jeline Vandromme of Belgium defeated the sisters 6-2, 6-4 in the second round.
The twins’ parents, Tomáš and Olga, former Czech Republic pros, moved to the US more than 25 years ago.
Photo: Manuela Davies/ USTA
Tomáš, the Director of Tennis at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club, admits the family’s schedule is “a bit crazy…”
The girls are homeschooled. English lessons are handled by their parents while their grandmother, who lives in the Czech Republic, is responsible via Skype for their Czech language skills.
Title photo of Mika Stojsavljevic by Luke Hales/ Getty Images