Canada’s Victoria Mboko outlasted fellow teen sensation Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open at Doha.
The 10th-seeded Mboko saved a match point in the third set when No. 5 Andreeva double-faulted. Mboko soon prevailed in a tiebreaker to defeat the 18-year-old Russian.
Mboko, 19, won the match on her third match point when she delivered her 38th winner. Mboko had a 5-2 edge in aces.
“I feel like I came out with some very clutch shots at the end,” Mboko said. “I think we both were pretty tired when it came to the tiebreak. I think I felt like I was lucky enough to have some good shots in the great moments.”
Mboko’s quarterfinal opponent will be Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. The second-seeded Rybakina rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory over China’s Zheng Qinwen on Wednesday.
The closeness of Mboko’s match is summed by points won: Mboko 96, Andreeva 94.
“It took everything, and at the end, we were both pretty tired. I’m glad to pull through today and get the win,” Mboko said. “It is my first time here. So far I am liking it a lot. I’m really excited to play here (Thursday).”
Andreeva converted 6 of 9 break points.
Rybakina needed two hours and 27 minutes to knock off Zheng. She fell into a hole and knew she was in trouble.
“Qinwen, she started better than me and I started a bit slower, and maybe played passive in a few moments,” Rybakina said. “But again, she started really well and then in the second I found a bit of my game and I stepped in. In the third — one break and everything changed, but I’m happy that in the end it went my way.”
Zheng had a 9-6 edge in aces but committed six double faults.
Top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland lost the first set before recovering for a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Daria Kasatkina.
Swiatek had a 7-1 edge in aces and saved 8 of 12 break points.
Swiatek next faces Greece’s Maria Sakkari, who knocked off Varvara Gracheva of France 7-6 (3), 6-0.
Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya upset No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-3.
Kalinskaya converted 4 of 5 break points and won 15 of 23 second-return points (65.2%) to defeat Svitolina for the first time in four all-time meetings.
Kalinskaya next faces Karolina Muchova, who was leading 5-2 in the first set before fellow Czech Karolina Pliskova retired due to a knee injury.
Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto defeated Ann Li 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-4 one day after she upset No. 4 seed Coco Gauff.
Cocciaretto will next face Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Camila Osorio of Colombia.
–Field Level Media
