By Hannah Blackwell
Welsh tennis star Mimi Xu was narrowly edged out in her quest for a first Wimbledon title – losing in the girls’ doubles final.
Xu, from Swansea, and Mika Stojsavljevic finished runners-up in the girls’ doubles final after narrowly losing out to the second seeds in a championship-deciding tie-break.
Xu, 16, and Stojsavljevic, 15, came back from a set down but eventually lost to USA’s Tyra Caterina Grant and Iva Jovic 7-5, 4-6, 10-8 in an hour and 35 minutes.
Xu – who is part of the Pro Scholarship Programme, presented by Lexus – said: “Overall it’s been a great week.
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“We’ve put ourselves out there on the court and had a great time. I really want to thank the crowd and our team for supporting us, it’s been a great week.”
They are the second all-British team to feature in the girls’ doubles final after Hannah Klugman and Isabelle Lacy also finished runners-up in 2023.
“It’s been really good,” said Stojsavljevic, who is supported by the LTA National Academy in Loughborough.
“It’s the first time we’ve played together at a Slam. We didn’t expect to get this far so it’s been good.”
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The pairs went toe-to-toe in a high-quality opening set, but it was the second seeds who came through in the decisive moments.
At 5-5 Grant found a clean backhand return winner to clinch the opening break of the match on Stojsavljevic’s serve.
The Brits battled hard to force a tie-break and had a break back point opportunities on Jovic’s serve thanks to some big hitting from Xu, but the duo couldn’t find a way to convert. Jovic utilised her big first serve to not only dig them out of a third break point but eventually wrap up the set for the American partnership.
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Xu and Stojsavljevic came back with the perfect response in the second set. Growing in confidence as the match progressed, both Brits showed some brilliant hands around the net to get their first break of the match against Grant’s serve.
Although the world No.4 and No.6 managed to get back on serve at 4-4, the sixth seeds fought to break Grant once again on their first set point to set up a match tie-break.
An incredible battle from start to finish, naturally the match would be decided by the finest of margins. Locked at 8-8 in the tie-break, Xu hit the Brit’s fourth double fault of the match before Grant closed out the win with a crunching volley on her partner’s serve.
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