Mika Stojsavljevic’s Queen’s match was moved to Court 1 on Sunday after fifth-seed Marta Kostyk withdrew just hours before she was due to play, forcing Donna Vekic into the draw as a lucky loser.
The late switch changed more than the opponent. Queen’s decided not to keep the match on Andy Murray Arena, where Stojsavljevic had been scheduled to play Kostyk, and instead sent the British wildcard and Vekic to Court 1. The reshuffle came after a day already affected by the light, with Katie Boulter and Leylah Fernandez having completed a set and a half before play was stopped the previous day.
For Stojsavljevic, the timing mattered because the match had been set up as a British wildcard against a seeded player before the withdrawal forced the tournament to rewrite the schedule. There was no immediate word on how she handled the switch, but the change put her into an altered contest at short notice, against an opponent who had not been in the original plan only hours earlier.
The adjustment also sat alongside a broader debate around the event’s wildcards. Defending champion Tatjana Maria, who was forced into qualifying and had to win two matches on Sunday to reach this stage, said she had expected different treatment after winning the title last year. She said she was surprised when Laura Robson told her all four wildcards would go to lower-ranked British players, adding that as champion she felt she deserved a wildcard and some respect.
Maria’s match against Maria Sakkari was upgraded to the main court, but her complaint hung over the day as a reminder that Queen’s was juggling both last-minute injuries and harder questions about who gets treated like a titleholder. Stojsavljevic was the player caught in the middle of the redraw, and her first Queen’s outing was left defined as much by who withdrew as by who stepped in.
She was due to face Vekic on Court 1, but the result was not reported, leaving the only certainty of the day that Queen’s had been forced into a late reset before Stojsavljevic ever took the court.
