Canada’s Victoria Mboko ousted defending champion and No. 2 seed Madison Keys 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals of the Adelaide International on Thursday in Australia.
For the 19-year-old Mboko, the No. 8 seed, the win was the second over a top 10 player in her career. The one-hour, 53-minute match was her third three-set win of the week. As for Keys, she committed 41 unforced errors and saved only half of the 12 break points she faced.
In the semis, Mboko will meet Kimberly Birrell of Australia, who needed just over three hours to defeat Jaqueline Cristian of Romania in three sets.
The second semifinal will feature No. 9 seed Diana Shnaider, who upset No. 6 seed Emma Navarro 6-3, 6-3, against fellow Russian Mirra Andreeva. The No. 3 seed Andreeva defeated Maya Joint of Australia 6-2, 6-0.
Hobart International
Taylah Preston, an Australian home-favorite wild card ranked No. 204 in the world, crushed No. 1 seed Emma Raducanu 6-2, 6-4 after a long rain delay to reach her first WTA semifinal.
Preston, 20, had won only one WTA Tour-level match in her career before this week at Hobart. She earlier defeated No. 5 seed Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in Hobart, and against Raducanu, hit 21 winners to her opponent’s nine.
No. 3 seed Iva Jovic defeated No. 8 seed Magda Linette of Poland in three sets that lasted almost three hours and will take on Preston in the semis.
In the other semifinal, Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Croatian Antonia Ruzic will meet. Both played easy two-set matches, with Cocciaretto defeating Anna Bondar of Hungary and Ruzic knocking out Serbian Olga Danilovic.
–Field Level Media
