British teenager Mika Stojsavljevic beat former grand slam champion Sofia Kenin in Hong Kong for a landmark first main-draw win on the WTA Tour.
The 17-year-old lost in the last spherical of qualifying for the WTA 250 occasion but was granted a last-minute reprieve when Canadian Leylah Fernandez, who lost in the Tokyo last on Sunday, withdrew from the principal draw.
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Stojsavljevic only discovered out she was enjoying an hour before her match but despite her restricted preparation time ground out a robust 6-3 4-6 6-4 win in two hours and 19 minutes over American Kenin, who won her only main at the Australian Open in 2020.
There were more than 200 locations between the highly-rated teen and her opponent.
Stojsavljevic, the 2024 junior US Open champion, was delighted as she celebrated her maiden win on the circuit and said: “I think it was a good match. Obviously I was coming in as a lucky loser, I only knew an hour before that I was going to be playing. I kind of just went out and swung today.
“We did not have much time to put together. Obviously I know she’s a grand slam champion so it was never going to be an simple match but I believed in myself and it labored out.”
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411th-ranked Stojsavljevic raced into a set and 3-0 lead before Kenin fought back, but she maintained her composure to come through in three units and convert her second match level.
She will face Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez in the second spherical.
Later on Wednesday eighth seed and British No 1 Katie Boulter suffered a straight-sets defeat to Claire Liu.
The American triumphed 7-5 6-4 in an hour and 47 minutes to e book her place in the third spherical, where she will play the winner of Stojsavljevic against Sonmez.
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