MONTREAL (AP) — Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko stunned top seed Coco Gauff with a dominant 6-1, 6-4 win Saturday night, securing a spot in the National Bank Open quarterfinals.
Speaking in French to an enthusiastic home crowd chanting “Olé, Olé, Olé!”, Mboko expressed her joy: “I’m so happy to win today… It’s incredible to beat such a great champion.”
Since her French Open title, Gauff has struggled, now 2-3 in post-Paris play. She suffered early exits in Berlin and Wimbledon and had battled through double-fault issues in Montreal, needing three sets to get past both Danielle Collins and Veronika Kudermetova. On Saturday, Gauff had five double faults and 24 unforced errors. “She’s playing high-level tennis,” Gauff acknowledged. “She was the better player today.”
Eighteen-year-old Mboko, ranked 85th, wrapped up the win over the 21-year-old Gauff in just over an hour. “When I was up 5-4, the noise from the crowd was overwhelming,” Mboko said. “But I used it to fire myself up and push through.”
Up next for Mboko is Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, who overcame China’s Lin Zhu 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 in a match delayed by rain and completed near midnight.
Mboko recalled their previous meeting in May, when Gauff rallied to beat her in three sets in Rome. “I kept thinking about that match,” Mboko said. “She raised her level, and I knew I had to do the same and stay right with her.”
Earlier in the day, Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, seeded 24th, and Kazakhstan’s ninth seed Elena Rybakina advanced to the quarters. Kostyuk defeated American McCartney Kessler 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, while Rybakina edged Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska 5-7, 6-2, 7-5.
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