Teenager Victoria Mboko +31 in WTA Rankings after second stunning win
Victoria Mboko had to come through qualifying to make her Grand Slam main draw debut, but now she finds herself in the third round of the French Open.
The 18-year-old Canadian claimed three straight-set wins in qualifying to book her appearance in the clay-court tournament and she has followed it up with two more two-set wins
First she secured a 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) victory over Lulu Sun – who is at No 45 in the WTA Rankings – and then beat world No 59 Eva Lys in the second round.
Both those players have some Grand Slam pedigree as Sun reached the quarter-final at Wimbledon last year while Lys made the fourth round at the Australian Open as a lucky loser, and upset 28th seed Peyton Stearns in the first round in Paris this week.
But the teenage Mboko, who was at No 333 at the start of the year, produced mature displays to reach the third round.
She is the second teenage qualifier to reach the round of 32 at Roland Garros in the past decade with current world No 6 Mirra Andreeva also achieving the feat in 2023.
Mboko is currently at No 128, but she is projected to rise 31 places to a new career-high No 89 after the tournament.
Up next is eighth seed Zheng Qinwen, who also required only two sets to defeat Emiliana Arango, and another upset win could see her jump a few more places in the rankings.
The Canadian made her WTA 1000 main draw debut at the Miami Open and recorded her maiden win before losing in the second round. A few weeks later she also reached the second round of the Italian Open before losing against Coco Gauff.
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Reigning world No 2 Gauff was impressed, saying: “First I saw her Miami Open. I didn’t know much about her before, but I’ve been following her since Miami. I think she’s a great player. I knew it was going to be a tough match.
“Like the ranking difference looks different, but she’s playing top-level tennis. I approached the match that way. It’s not a case of underestimation. I knew she was going to come out there and play great.”
The American added: “I felt like playing myself because I feel like I move pretty well, she moves very well.
“But she obviously has a great game, so I don’t want to say her game is like mine. For sure on the movement, I would say she’s up there with me on that.
“As far as the other parts of her game, she’s obviously a big hitter, can play well, moves pretty well, has a nice backhand, same on the forehand.”
