Rising Canadian tennis star Victoria Mboko is through to the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open after beating fifth seed Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) on Wednesday.
Mboko, seeded 10th at the WTA 1000 hard court tournament, survived match point when Andreeva committed a double fault before converting a crucial break to level the third set at 5-5.
The Canadian completed the victory in the tiebreak by capping a match point rally with a backhand winner.
“I feel like I came out with some very impressive shots at the end,” Mboko said afterwards WTA tour. “I think we were both quite tired when it came to the tiebreak. I think I felt like I was lucky enough to get some good shots in the big moments.”
The match was the latest chapter in a budding rivalry between two of the top 10 players in women’s tennis.
They met for the first time last month in the final of the Adelaide International, with the 18-year-old Russian winning 6-3, 6-1.
“I didn’t really have any specific tactics against her,” Mboko said. “But I know she cuts really well, and she hits really low. I think she forced me to hit those (slices and spins). She covers the court really well, so I think it was just a little window for me to open up the court. Yeah, I found myself making those kinds of shots because that’s all I felt I could do.”
Mboko improved her record to 11-3 this season. The 19-year-old from Toronto is coming off a breakout 2025 campaign in which she won two titles, including a 1000-level crown at the National Bank Open in Montreal.
She entered the Qatar Open ranked 13th in the world and could potentially break into the top 10 with a win in the quarter-finals.
Mboko will next face the winner of a third-round match between Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and China’s Zheng Qinwen.
In doubles, Gabriela of Ottawa and Luisa Stefani of Brazil – the fifth seeds – secured a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic and Liudmila Samsonova of Russia. But Leylah Fernandez of Montreal and Kristina Mladenovic of France dropped a 6-2, 4-6, 10-4 decision to the fourth-seeded tandem of Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic.
— with files from Sportsnet.
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