Mika Stojsavljevic narrowly avoided losing 12 games in a row as she fell to a heavy defeat to become the first British player knocked out of Wimbledon. The 17-year-old was appearing in the main draw of a Grand Slam for only the second time, a year on from making her debut on home soil. Stojsavljevic again received a wildcard this year but was handed a difficult first-round draw against 11th seed Belinda Bencic, who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon 12 months ago.
The teenager made the perfect start, breaking Bencic in the opening game of the match and then consolidating that, but the tide swiftly turned against her. Bencic won the next six games to take the opening set and then breezed to the cusp of victory in the second. After losing 11 consecutive games, Stojsavljevic prevented a second-set bagel by holding with an ace, raising her fist and smiling in response to the loud ovation from the crowd. However, Bencic got the job done in the following game, wrapping up a 6-2 6-1 victory in just over an hour.
Bencic will now face either Elisabetta Cocciaretto or Wang Xinyu in the second round.
Other British Results on Day One
Elsewhere for the British stars on the opening day at SW19, qualifier Max Basing was beaten 6-3 6-0 6-0 by Japanese No2 Shintaro Mochizuki on Court 14. Felix Gill also lost in straight sets as highly-rated Spaniard Rafael Jodar eased to a 6-3 6-3 7-5 victory.
Teenager Hannah Klugman closes the day on No 3 Court against former champion Barbora Krejcikova and Jack Pinnington Jones takes on Brandon Nakashima. After Emma Raducanu's withdrawal on the eve of the Championships through injury, a rescheduled order of play on No 1 Court will be opened by Harriet Dart against Jelena Ostapenko. Cameron Norrie is up against American Michael Zheng, while Alicia Dudeney faces Alycia Parks. Oliver Tarvet, who faced Carlos Alcaraz on Centre Court last year, came through qualifying to book his place in the main draw and he plays Arthur Rinderknech.
