Mika Stojsavljević turned a late call-up into the biggest win of her young career on Wednesday, beating Sofia Kenin 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of the 2026 Hong Kong Open. The 17-year-old from London entered as a lucky loser, then outlasted a former Australian Open champion in a match that lasted two hours and 19 minutes.
The result mattered because Stojsavljević had only an hour to prepare after Leylah Fernandez withdrew with a left shoulder injury shortly before the walk-on. Kenin was ranked 224 places higher on the WTA Tour, but that gap did not hold when the deciding set opened up. Stojsavljević surged to 4-1, saved the pressure of a long, messy contest that featured 11 service breaks, and sealed the upset on her second match point.
For Stojsavljević, the win was more than a one-off surprise. It was her first WTA main-draw victory, a milestone that fits into a breakout 2026 season in which she has already recorded a Billie Jean King Cup debut win and reached a quarter-final at the Birmingham Open. On Wednesday, she said she simply went out and swung, adding that she knew Kenin’s record and understood how hard the match would be, but believed in herself and made it work.
The awkward part for Kenin is that the draw shifted at the last minute and still left her facing an opponent with almost no time to settle. That did not make the upset smaller; it made it harder to explain. Stojsavljević now has little time to dwell on it, though, because Thursday brings another test against Zeynep Sonmez in the second round.
