The future of British tennis could be Welsh after Mimi Xu win
Welsh teenager Mimi Xu claimed the biggest win of her career in Wrexham to shoot up the world rankings.
It was the biggest win of her career and came against fellow British teenager Mika Stojsavljevic – 6-3, 7-5 – in the Wrexham Open, the biggest tennis event staged in Wales in almost 30 years.
Few would have heard of Xu before she was drawn against Emma Raducanu in the first round of this year’s Wimbledon. But now she has taken the first major step of her senior career – although she described her driving test as more nerve-wracking than stepping out onto Court No 1 in SW19.
Wrexham might not be an established point on the tennis tour, but it is the biggest tournament held on British soil outside the grass-court season, an ITF W100 event won last year by Sonay Kartal. The total prize money might be a far cry from the millions of the grand slams, but it does stand at a reputable $ 100,000 (£75,142).
“It feels a bit like a full-circle moment if I’m being completely honest,” Xu, and 18-year-old from Swansea, said on court after lifting the trophy.
“Back when I was younger, the biggest tournament in my head was Welsh Champions, and this was where I won my first Welsh Champions when I was eight and under, so to win my biggest title ever feels like a bit of a full-circle moment.”
The tournament, which until this year had been held in Shrewsbury, has an interesting relationship with Wimbledon. Marketa Vondrousova won in the Shropshire town the year before she won the 2023 title in SW19. And last year Kartal won to break into the world’s top 100 for the first time.
For Xu, who at one point had to sit an A-level in a spare room at a tennis tournament in match kit having come straight off the court, it is an important milestone in a fledgling career.
There was a nod to her age when after a moment of celebration, she ran across the court to hug her mother, before departing to prepare for the doubles event, which she won alongside Ella McDonald.
Watch the moment Swansea-born Mimi Xu won the biggest title of her career in front of a home crowd at the Wrexham Open 🤩 pic.twitter.com/wtmadMA8dT
— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) October 26, 2025
It was a fitting setting – Xu was the first Welsh player to reach the All England Tennis Club main singles draw in 20 years when she received a wild card this year. Played in front of a full crowd – and a DJ who played a bizarre soundtrack with many songs that not only predated the birth of both competitors, but at times did so by a number of decades – Xu easily beat Stojsavljevic, a player two years younger who recently beat her, to move up to 269th in the world in the live rankings.
Stojsavljevic, who won the US Open junior girls title in 2024, has also left junior tennis behind her. A graduate of the Lawn Tennis Association’s Loughborough Academy, she has risen more than 200 rankings places in two weeks to sit just outside the world’s top 350
