19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko breezed past Eva Lys in less than an hour at the WTA 500 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Wednesday, winning 6-1 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals, where she awaits second-seeded Elena Rybakina or her compatriot Leylah Fernandez, who plays on Thursday.
Tennis is fun until it isn’t Eva Lys
Also making it to the Bottom 8 are Karolina Muchova, the 8th seed, who was a 6-3 6-4 winner over Maya Joint, Anna Kalinskaya, after the Russian upset her compatriot, 7th seed Diana Shnaider, 7-6(4) 2-6 7-5, and Linda Noskova, the 6th seed, who fought her way past McCartney Kessler, 5-7 6-3 6-4.
Mboko reached her second WTA quarter-final of her young career in 53 minutes.
“I just wanted to be myself and try to play very aggressively,” Mboko said after the match. “I didn’t really have a clear game plan. I just wanted to play freely and just be very positive with myself on court. So I think today I checked all the points, and in the end it all worked out.”
Mboko broke to open the match, winning the first set in just 25 minutes, making just two unforced errors and dropping just three points on her own serve, all of which she backed up with an almost identical second set, facing just one break point all match, saving it with ease.
In fact, the 23-year-old German never posed a real threat to the Canadian’s serve in their second meeting, where she suffered her second defeat to Mboko.
Interestingly, Mboko only lost 8 points on her serve, but half of those came in the final game alone, after which she finished with 10 unforced errors and 12 winners.
Qualifier Eva Lys faced online abuse after losing to Victoria Mboko in Tokyo on Wednesday
© Koji Watanabe/Getty Images
Unfortunately for Lys, she was once again targeted by angry punters on Instagram, who sent hateful messages after her departure.
World number 50 Lys won two qualifying matches to make her main draw debut in Tokyo before completing a remarkable first-round victory over former Great Britain number 23 Katie Boulter.
“Tennis is fun until it isn’t,” the German wrote on her Instagram Story, after she also became a victim of abuse on social media earlier this month.
In late September and early October, Lys enjoyed her career-best WTA 1000 run as she upset Elena Rybakina on her way to reaching her first WTA 1000 quarter-final in Beijing, but she could not secure another victory against Coco Gauff, who ended her run 6-3 6-4, prompting insults from angry punters.
Eighth seed Karolina Muchova powered her way past teenager Maya Joint in straight sets to reach the Tokyo quarterfinals
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Meanwhile, Karolina Muchova came from 2-0 down in the first set to beat talented Australian teenager Maya Joint in a first encounter that lasted an hour and 29 minutes, sending the Czech into her fourth quarter-final of the year.
The 29-year-old had reached the second round when her compatriot, former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, withdrew from the opening match after 50 minutes with the score 6-2, 1-0. referring to an injury.
According to reports, Karolina Pliskova has since accused Vondrousova of retiring because she didn’t think she had a chance to win the match, which didn’t sit well with the 2023 Wimbledon champion.
Last week, Muchova defeated Vondrousova 6-4 6-3 in an all-Czech battle in the first round of the Ningbo Open, and in Tokyo the two Czechs were invited to meet again.
Pliskova, who returned from ankle surgery at the end of September, is sidelined again after playing just three matches in two tournaments.
“I have seen the matches of both Karolina Muchova and Marketa Vondrousova that have been played in the last few days,” Pliskova said on a Czech tennis podcast. “It’s never fun to play against the same opponent twice in a row. You just don’t want that. They both train with Stvanice, they are friends. For Marketa it was especially unpleasant. She has now lost to Karolina in Tokyo, Ningbo and even a big match in Indian Wells.”
“Today Marketa had absolutely no chance for me, I give Karolina all the credit, she played excellently. And again, off-topic: Sorry, but I think it could have been finished today.
“For me it’s similar to Tomas Machac in Shanghai. Maybe Marketa got hurt, but I think Marketa realized she didn’t have a chance and gave up the match for that reason. I’ll probably get another round of criticism, but give it to me.”
Vondrousova, who surgically repaired her shoulder last year but still suffers from the problem, was stunned when she heard about Pliskova’s approach.
“Anyone who has ever played with an injury knows that sometimes you just can’t go on,” Vondrousova wrote in a post on Instagram. “I’m doubly aware of this after shoulder surgery. I don’t understand why someone who should understand this best would question this.”
Vondrousova missed three months earlier this season between February and May, which was generally a challenge for the 26-year-old Czech.
Muchova awaits the winner of Thursday’s match between fifth-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and French qualifier Varvara Gracheva.
Anna Kalinskaya upset compatriot Diana Shnaider, the seventh seed, in three very tight sets on Wednesday
© Koji Watanabe/Getty Images
In an all-Russian affair, Anna Kalinskaya squeaked past Diana Shnaider in a tiebreak thriller in the third set of Tokyo.
The first meeting between the two did not disappoint as Kalinskaya came from 2-4 down in the third set to finish as the seventh seed in a barn burner lasting 2 hours and 42 minutes.
The result was Kalinskaya’s fifth Top 20 win of 2025, and she now faces another Czech, Linda Noskova, who had to dig deep into her toolbox to produce a full range of shots to beat McCartney Kessler.
The No. 6 seed improved her record against the American to 2-1 overall after a 2-hour, 4-minute battle, and advances to her 7th Last 8 appearance of the season.
Noskova has played Kalinskaya only once before, in qualifying for Adelaide #1 in 2023, winning 3-6 6-2 7-6(7).
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