Victoria Mboko is off to the third round of a Grand Slam main draw for the first time in her career after defeating Eva Lys on Wednesday morning at Roland-Garros. The Canadian teen overpowered her German opponent for a straight-set win. It is the first time that Mboko has won back-to-back matches in a tour-level main draw.
The Canadian spent most of the day playing on the front foot. She got off to a quick start and while Lys was persistent in hanging around, Mboko kept her foot on the gas to claim a 6-4, 6-4 win.
While she struggled at times with consistency, Mboko had Lys under constant pressure, striking 22 winners and forcing the German into 26 errors. The Canadian created a dozen break points chances, converting five, while saving three of six on her own serve.
Mboko looked like she was going to run away with the match early on. She overwhelmed Lys in the German’s opening service game, breaking with a huge backhand winner crosscourt, and then went up love-40 the next time the German stepped up to the line. However, Lys was able to fight back, partially thanks to a couple of forehand misses from the Canadian, and avoided going down a double break. She then managed to break Mboko in the following game to get back to 2-2.
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The pair settled into a bit of a rhythm after the early exchange, but as the set went along, it was Mboko wrestling back control. At 4-4, the Canadian had another look at love-40 and this time, Lys netted a backhand to give the teen a chance to serve out the set, which she did.
Set two started out with three consecutive breaks, two of them going the way of the Canadian. She got the first hold of the set to take a 3-1 lead.
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Lys refused to go away quietly. A couple of Mboko backhands wide in the sixth game opened the door for the German to get back on serve and she rifled a winner on the second break point to level at 3-3. However, the Canadian responded immediately, teeing off on a return on break point in the following game to reclaim the advantage.
There was nearly a second run of three straight breaks in the set when Lys had a chance to once again draw level in eighth game, but Mboko slammed the door shut with a backhand down the line. That proved to be the last look at a break for either woman. When Mboko served for the match two games later, she punched her ticket to the third round with an ace.
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With the win, Mboko is projected to rise into the Top 100 of the WTA rankings for the first time when the new rankings are released after Roland-Garros. She will have a huge test in the third round in the form of world No. 8 Qinwen Zheng, who won the Olympic gold medal at this venue last July.
In doubles action on Wednesday in Paris, Gabriel Diallo cruised through his first-round match with Jacob Fearnley. They easily defeated Nicolas Barrientos and Rithvik Bollipalli 6-0, 6-2.
Feature Photo : Martin Sidorjak
