Serena Williams and Victoria Mboko’s Queen’s partnership in doubt after injury blow
Victoria Mboko’s Queen’s Club Championship singles campaign ended in agony in her opening match after she suffered a nasty fall during her match against Karolina Pliskova.
Just a day after teaming up with Serena Williams in the doubles, third seed Mboko – who had a bye into the second round – kicked off her singles campaign on the Andy Murray Arena on Wednesday.
The world No 9 made a sluggish start as she lost her serve in the opening game of the match and was broken again in game seven as former world No 1 Pliskova took the opening set comfortably.
But she was steadier in the second set as they were on serve until disaster struck in game eight with the Czech serving at 6-2, 3-4 [40-40] as Mboko slipped while trying to get to a forehand from her opponent.
She immediately collapsed to the ground and cried out in pain, clutching her left knee. The chair umpire rushed over to her and immediately called the medics and, after an assessment, the 19-year-old Canadian retired.
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“First of all, such a shame. I think we played quite a good game today and I think she was improving as the match was going (on). It would have been a nice match but I wish her only the best,” Pliskova said.
“Of course, this is not the way that we want to win. Hopefully she is going to be fine.”
Mboko’s injury leaves a major doubt over her next doubles encounter with Williams as the pair – who beat third seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe in the first round – were due to take on Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund in the quarter-final on Thursday.
After their win on Monday, Williams warned that grass was a difficult surface, saying: “With all the elements, considering coming back on grass is probably not the easiest surface.”
Mboko added: “Yeah, coming back on grass, too. We talked about if it was hard, it might have been a different story.”
And it is not only Mboko’s doubles campaign at Queen’s Club that is in doubt as she is on the entry list for next week’s WTA 500 Berlin Open while Wimbledon is just a few weeks away with the grass-court Grand Slam starting on Monday, 29 July.
Mboko is set to be one of seeded players the Canadian is assured of being among the top-32 players at the cutoff time.
