Prior to the Miami Open, Victoria Mboko told Canadian media that she would like to face a Top 10 player to see how she stacked up against the best players in the world. The answer was “very well,” but it was not enough on Friday as she was narrowly beaten in the second round of her first WTA 1000 event by 10th seed Paula Badosa in three sets.
The match was highly competitive, full of long, hard-hitting rallies. There were plenty of moments when Mboko’s power blew the Spaniard off the court, including an impressive bounce-back after dropping the first set and a thrilling comeback in the third. But ultimately Badosa’s defensive skills were too much and she was able to grind the Canadian away 7-5, 1-6, 7-6(3).
There was precious little between the two women in the two-hour, 21-minute clash. Both broke their opponent five times, with Mboko having 10 chances to her the Spaniard’s nine. In the end, Badosa won just three more total points.
Mboko had to play behind for much of the opening set, but she did a good job of responding after slip-ups. In the opening game, a couple of nervy errors allowed Badosa to break but the Canadian immediately got the break back when the world No. 11 missed a forehand in the following game.
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Badosa again broke to take the lead at 3-2 but now the teen was finding her range. Some impressive big hitting allowed her to once again respond immediately and get back on serve. Unfortunately for Mboko, the backhand abandoned her late and it cost her. At 5-5, she netted back-to-back backhands to surrender the break and this time, she was unable to clap back as Badosa served out the set.
It seemed like the Spaniard was poised to run away with it when she had three chances to break in the opening game of the second set but Mboko held her ground, saving all three break points including two with big serves. That hold completely flipped the momentum as errors began to flow off of Badosa’s racquet. A couple of balls into the net in the following game handed a 2-0 lead to the Canadian.
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Everything was going Mboko’s way as Badosa had no answer for the youngster’s big hitting. Mboko missed a chance to make it a double break in the fourth game but at 4-1, the 18-year-old had a look at 15-40 on the Spaniard’s serve and Badosa cracked in the face of the teen’s power. She sent a forehand into the net to put Mboko within a game of extending the match, which she did with a hold.
In the decider, Badosa settled back in and the errors quieted down. She went back to hanging with Mboko in the rallies and it was the Canadian’s turn to start struggling. While she saved a break point in the fourth game, at 2-2 Mboko missed a backhand to go down 30-40 and then overcooked a forehand to surrender the break.
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Badosa led by as much as 5-2 but the 18-year-old was not going away quietly. When the Spaniard served for the match at 5-3, Mboko made a big push and broke to love to get back on serve. The Canadian then had a chance to break for the lead at 5-5, 30-40 but Badosa just managed to drop a high backhand volley in to save the break point.
A tiebreak was needed to separate the two and Badosa was able to play from ahead throughout. She scored an early minibreak to go up 2-0 and, even though Mboko managed to level, a spectacular backhand passing shot to go up 4-2 ultimately proved decisive. The teen’s comeback bid fell agonizingly short as the Spaniard took the breaker 7-3 to claim victory.
Mboko’s first-round victory over Camila Osorio was her first-ever WTA main-draw match win. Just by reaching the second round, Mboko is projected to reach a new career-high ranking after Miami. Leylah Annie Fernandez is now the lone Canadian left in the women’s singles draw.
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