Victoria Mboko dazzled in Paris but her stay in the French capital has come to an end. The 18-year-old Canadian was defeated in the third round of Roland-Garros on Friday morning by world No. 7 Qinwen Zheng in straight sets.
Coming into the round three clash, Mboko had already won five matches on the Parisian clay, all in straight sets, having come through qualifying and then winning her first two matches in a Grand Slam main draw. Up against one of the tour’s best clay-courters, she battled hard and forced Zheng to find her best, but the Olympic Gold medalist had the answers and eliminated the Canadian 6-3, 6-4.
Zheng was able to outhit Mboko from the baseline, smacking 17 winners to the Canadian’s five. The world No. 7 also seized her opportunities when given a chance to break Mboko’s big serve, converting all four of her break-point chances. The teen had plenty of opportunities of her own but only managed to convert two of eight.
The breaks came early and often in the opening set. Mboko actually had the first look in the third game but Zheng erased a break point with a winner. A run of three straight breaks followed, with two of them going the way of the Olympic gold medalist who eventually ended the run with a hold to go up 5-2.
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After reclaiming the break advantage in the sixth game, Zheng locked down her serve. She held her last two service games to love to wrap up the opening set.
Zheng then kicked off set two in style, hitting three straight winners to break Mboko to love in the opening game. However, she followed it up with a dud, committing three unforced errors to snap her brilliant serving streak and hand the love break back to the Canadian.
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Midway through the set, the Chinese’s powerful hitting came through again. On her own serve at 2-3, Mboko struggled to hang in the rallies with Zheng, who broke to love once again, closing out the game with a winner.
The best chance the teen had to get back in it came in the eighth game when she went up love-40 on Zheng’s serve, but the world No. 7 was able to claw back. Zheng saved all three break points and went on to hold. Mboko had one last chance when Zheng served for the match in the 10th game when twice the Chinese missed to give her a break point, but the teen committed errors on both and Zheng was able to finish off the win on her first match point.
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By coming through qualifying and reaching the third round, Mboko is projected to enter the Top 100 of the WTA rankings for the first time and potentially land just inside the Top 90.
Mboko was the lone Canadian to reach the third round of singles at Roland-Garros and her defeat means there are no Canadians left. Leylah Annie Fernandez and Gabriel Diallo also both lost their respective second-round doubles matches on Friday.
Feature Photo : Martin Sidorjak
