Canada's Victoria Mboko rallies to advance to fourth round of National Bank Open
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Mboko overcame a one-set deficit to defeat world No. 39 Marie Bouzkova 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 on Thursday night at IGA Stadium.
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Mboko continued to utilize her blistering serve, hitting five aces to run her total in the tournament to 32. Her synonymous striking forehand also remained on full display throughout the nearly two-hour long match.
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Nevertheless, she committed 10 double faults in the match, after accumulating just seven through the opening two rounds.
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The 18-year-old, the last of nine Canadians remaining in the WTA 1000 main draw, collected her sixth win against a top-50 player.
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Bouzkova saw her seven-match winning streak come to a halt. A semifinalist in Toronto in 2019, the Czech native was coming off her second career WTA singles title in her native Prague last week.
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Bouzkova came out strong, breaking Mboko in her opening two service games to take a 3-0 lead.
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The Toronto native got one of those breaks back the following game to cut the deficit to 3-1, but a trio of double faults in the fifth game gave the Czech her two-break cushion right back.
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Bouzkova broke Mboko for the fourth time to take the opening set 6-1 in just 29 minutes. It marked the first set dropped by Mboko during the tournament.
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Mboko immediately broke her rival in the opening game of the second set, a break of serve she consolidated thanks to a fortuitous bounce off the net cord that landed fair. However, Mboko's second service game with three double faults in the match leveled the set at 2-2.
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But it didn't faze Mboko, who got the break back, thanks to a double fault by her opponent.
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She broke again in the ninth game to take the set 6-3.
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The third set began just like the second, with Mboko breaking for an early 2-0 lead. Two more breaks of serve followed in the set on her way to a near-flawless final set.
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Mboko will next play top-seeded American Coco Gauff in the fourth round, who defeated Russian Veronika Kudermetova in three sets earlier Thursday, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
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Gauff and Mboko will meet for the second time this season at a WTA 1000 tournament. The American got the better of Mboko in a second-round three-set battle on the clay courts in Rome in May.
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Gauff, the French Open champion, advanced despite having committed 37 double faults in her two matches played so far this week.
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