Latest news with #LeylahFernandez
National Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- National Post
Toronto teen Victoria Mboko falls to Olympic champ Zheng Qinwen at French Open
PARIS — Canadian teen Victoria Mboko's breakthrough Grand Slam run came to an end Friday at the French Open. Article content Article content The 18-year-old from Toronto was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by No. 8 seed Zheng Qinwen of China in third-round action at Roland Garros. Article content Mboko, ranked No. 333 at the start of the year, had surged into the spotlight with three straight wins in qualifying and two more in the main draw — all in straight sets — before running into Zheng, an Australian Open finalist who won Olympic gold in singles last summer on these same Paris clay courts. Article content Article content Zheng won 70 per cent of her first-serve points and saved six of eight break points. Article content Mboko was broken four times and won only 38 per cent of her second-serve points. Article content Still, it was a major step forward for Mboko in her Grand Slam main-draw debut. She'll officially enter the WTA's top 100 when the tournament wraps. Article content Later Friday, Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva fell 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 to Slovakia's Tereza Mihalikova and Great Britain's Olivia Nicholls. Article content Fernandez and Putintseva converted six of nine break chances but managed to save just one of six against them in the second-round women's doubles match. Article content Montreal's Gabriel Diallo and Great Britain's Jacob Fearnley lost in second-round men's doubles action. Article content
New York Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Victoria Mboko: The Canadian tennis talent who can't stop winning is here for the long haul
ROLAND-GARROS, PARIS — Ripping a backhand past a former Wimbledon quarterfinalist to clinch a first Grand Slam win on the opening day of the French Open is a pretty good way to make tennis fans stand up and take notice. Or maybe Victoria Mboko, the 18-year-old, American-born, Canadian-raised daughter of Congolese parents, has been announcing herself for months now. Maybe folks just weren't listening closely enough. Advertisement Everyone is now. As her Roland-Garros debut approached, Mboko played the same brain game she has been playing through a startling climb up the tennis biosphere. She tells herself that what is happening isn't actually happening. 'Kind of just play it down,' she said during an interview after her 6-1 7-6(4) win over Lulu Sun of New Zealand Sunday afternoon, which earned her a second-round duel with Eva Lys of Germany. 'Pretend like you're playing somewhere else, that you're not at a Grand Slam. It's another clay-court tournament. That way, I don't put as much pressure on myself and the points. I let loose and I kind of go for my shots a little bit more.' If playing make-believe before walking onto the biggest stages in tennis could lead to Mboko taking a spot next to Bianca Andreescu, Leylah Fernandez, Denis Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Milos Raonic and others in the Canadian tennis firmament, then Mboko probably ought to keep doing it. Her performance against Sun showed every bit of what has generated all the buzz about Mboko becoming the latest in a string of Canadians from immigrant families who have made it to the top of the sport. 'We know Canada is a very multicultural country and we are very accepting of everyone,' Andreescu, who has become a mentor to Mboko, said during an interview in Rome. 'I think it's a beautiful thing that we're all from different different cultures, different backgrounds, but at the end of the day Tennis Canada really has built this program in the acceptance of everybody, no matter who you are.' The youngest by seven years of four tennis-playing siblings, Mboko has been winning more than just about anyone in professional women's tennis since the start of the year. She finished last year ranked 350th, with her coaches believing fully in her potential but also wanting her to take it slow, given her struggles with knee injuries in recent years. Advertisement Now they have another problem on their hands. Mboko has won so many matches that she has already played more than she has ever played before. She started the year winning 22 in a row on the ITF World Tennis Tour, two rungs below the WTA Tour. She lost one, then won another five, this time at a WTA 125 event, the next rung up, in Porto. She has won matches in Rome, Ga. and Rome, Italy at the Italian Open. Her record on the year is 41-5. 'That's a lot,' Marko Strillic, one of three coaches she works with at the Canadian Tennis Federation, said during an interview. 'If she keeps winning, you have to figure out a way to manage the schedule so that she doesn't get hurt. This is for the long term.' That was three weeks ago in Rome, before Mboko cruised through French Open qualifying to earn her main draw debut, and then knocked through Sun as though she knew she would all along. This is going to get complicated, but to the people closest to Mboko, this rocket ride both is and is not surprising. Her oldest sister Gracia, 28, who played tennis for the University of Denver, said she and her brothers always knew that their baby sister had something they did not. Gracia recalled a local women's tournament at their home club in Burlington, a suburb of Ontario, that she played in when she was 17. At the last minute, another slot opened up, and a pro at the club asked Victoria, who was just 9 and had come to watch, if she wanted to play. Victoria jumped at the opportunity and eventually faced her sister. Gracia won, 6-0, 6-0, but the way Victoria behaved, it was as though she had expected the results to go the other way. 'It's that belief in yourself that the very top of the one percent have,' Gracia, a consultant in private equity, said Sunday after watching her sister win. 'It's: 'not only should I win this match, I'm going to go do it.' And then she does it.' Advertisement At least she does now. For the past couple of years, a knee injury caused by both rapid growth and a bad fall on a tennis court has made that difficult. She spent much of last year based in Belgium at the academy of Justine Henin, the former world No. 1 and four-time French Open champion. She played little for the first six months of the year. Getting healthy was the priority. Even then, she ended the year losing more than she won, dropping three of her last four matches. 'Last year ended very poorly,' said her brother Kevin Mboko, 27, a tennis coach in suburban Toronto who was courtside with Gracia on Sunday. 'I didn't see any of this coming. No one did.' Their father, Cyprien, a retired mechanical engineer who worked nights in part so that he could drive his children to their tennis obligations, was there too. Victoria's mother, Godée, an accountant, was back home, dealing with a heavy end-of-the-month workload, as was her other brother, David, a 25-year-old data scientist. The Mbokos moved from the Democratic Republic of Congo nearly three decades ago, to escape the First and Second Congo Wars of the mid-1990s. Visa issues kept the family separated, with Godée in Montreal and Cyprien in North Carolina. Godée then moved to N.C., where the family lived for several years and where Victoria was born, before all moving to Toronto when she was still a baby. Victoria didn't let the losses in the final months of 2024 get to her. 'I just thought new year, new me,' she said during an interview in Rome. She decided to play like the version of herself that she has long believed in: an aggressive, athletic player who likes to take control of points and dictate the action. In Miami, she beat Camila Osorio, a 23-year-old tour mainstay, and pushed Paula Badosa, the No. 10 seed at Roland-Garros, to a third-set tiebreak. In Rome, she cruised through the first set in her second-round match against Coco Gauff, lacing backhands and forehands through the court on the Campo Centrale like a seasoned veteran. Gauff turned the match into one of her long-distance track races, getting so many balls back that Mboko was huffing and puffing between every point. But the world No. 2 came away seriously impressed. She 'felt like playing myself,' Gauff said in a huddle after the match, especially with how well Mboko covered the court. Advertisement 'On the movement, I would say she's up there with me on that,' Gauff, probably the best mover in the sport, said. Gracia Mboko said her sister came away from that loss both devastated and determined. 'She told me she was so out of steam, that she couldn't believe how Coco was getting every ball back,' she said Sunday. 'She kept saying, 'I got to get in shape.' It motivated her.' In Paris, Mboko has also showed off a precocious variety, mixing in drop shots and slices, including a hard, slicing forehand to keep Sun off balance. Her coach is Nathalie Tauziat, who got to No. 3 in the world with a game moulded around variety. But Mboko can also crack her serve at 120 mph. Not surprisingly, she grew up worshiping Serena Williams. Mboko said after Sunday's win that she'd learned plenty from that loss to Gauff. She knew she had let the world No. 2's grit frustrate her, thinking about the last point when she was supposed to be thinking about the next one. Her coaches are onto this. 'They'll start to snap me right back into it,' she said. 'They'll actually say: 'stay present, stay focused, or close it right here.'' With 41 wins in a year, Mboko isn't exactly unfamiliar with closing it. Now she has done it on the biggest stage in the sport.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
French Open 2025: Men's and Women's seeds list and tracker
The 2025 French Open got underway on Sunday, 25 May, kicking off the second major of the year. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka got her campaign off to a flying start, dropping just one game as she dispatched Kamilla Rakhimova to reach the second round. Some other seeds were not so lucky. While there were no major shocks and surprises on day one, former US Open finalist and 27th seed Leylah Fernandez suffered a first-round exit, while 28th seed Peyton Stearns fell in straight sets to Eva Lys, who rose to prominence as a lucky loser at the Australian Open in January, when she reached the fourth round. In-form clay-court specialist Marta Kostyuk, the 26th seed, also suffered an early exit to the 188th-ranked Sara Beljek of the Czech Republic. Follow the progress of the top players at Roland Garros with our seed tracker here: Jannik Sinner Carlos Alcaraz Alexander Zverev Taylor Fritz Jack Draper Novak Djokovic Casper Ruud Lorenzo Musetti Alex de Minaur Holger Rune Daniil Medvedev Tommy Paul Ben Shelton Arthur Fils Frances Tiafoe Grigor Dimitrov Andrey Rublev Francisco Cerundolo Jakub Mensik Stefanos Tsitsipas Tomas Machac Ugo Humbert Sebastian Korda Karen Khachanov Alexei Popyrin Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Denis Shapovalov Brandon Nakashima (def. first round) Felix Auger-Aliassime Hubert Hurkacz Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard Alex Michelsen (def. first round) Aryna Sabalenka Coco Gauff Jessica Pegula Jasmine Paolini Iga Swiatek Mirra Andreeva Madison Keys Zheng Qinwen Emma Navarro Paula Badosa Diana Shnaider Elena Rybakina Elina Svitolina Karolina Muchova Barbora Krejcikova Amanda Anisimova Daria Kasatkina Donna Vekic Liudmila Samsonova Ekaterina Alexandrova Jelena Ostapenko Clara Tauson Beatriz Haddad Maia Elise Mertens Magdalena Frech Marta Kostyuk (def. first round) Leylah Fernandez (def. first round) Peyton Stearns (def. first round) Linda Noskova Anna Kalinskaya Sofia Kenin Yulia Putintseva
The Independent
25-05-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
French Open 2025: Men's and Women's seeds list and tracker
The 2025 French Open got underway on Sunday, 25 May, kicking off the second major of the year. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka got her campaign off to a flying start, dropping just one game as she dispatched Kamilla Rakhimova to reach the second round. Some other seeds were not so lucky. While there were no major shocks and surprises on day one, former US Open finalist and 27th seed Leylah Fernandez suffered a first-round exit, while 28th seed Peyton Stearns fell in straight sets to Eva Lys, who rose to prominence as a lucky loser at the Australian Open in January, when she reached the fourth round. In-form clay-court specialist Marta Kostyuk, the 26th seed, also suffered an early exit to the 188th-ranked Sara Beljek of the Czech Republic. Men's seeds Jannik Sinner Carlos Alcaraz Alexander Zverev Taylor Fritz Jack Draper Novak Djokovic Casper Ruud Lorenzo Musetti Alex de Minaur Holger Rune Daniil Medvedev Tommy Paul Ben Shelton Arthur Fils Frances Tiafoe Grigor Dimitrov Andrey Rublev Francisco Cerundolo Jakub Mensik Stefanos Tsitsipas Tomas Machac Ugo Humbert Sebastian Korda Karen Khachanov Alexei Popyrin Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Denis Shapovalov Brandon Nakashima (def. first round) Felix Auger-Aliassime Hubert Hurkacz Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard Alex Michelsen (def. first round) Women's seeds Aryna Sabalenka Coco Gauff Jessica Pegula Jasmine Paolini Iga Swiatek Mirra Andreeva Madison Keys Zheng Qinwen Emma Navarro Paula Badosa Diana Shnaider Elena Rybakina Elina Svitolina Karolina Muchova Barbora Krejcikova Amanda Anisimova Daria Kasatkina Donna Vekic Liudmila Samsonova Ekaterina Alexandrova Jelena Ostapenko Clara Tauson Beatriz Haddad Maia Elise Mertens Magdalena Frech Marta Kostyuk (def. first round) Leylah Fernandez (def. first round) Peyton Stearns (def. first round) Linda Noskova Anna Kalinskaya Sofia Kenin Yulia Putintseva
CTV News
25-05-2025
- Sport
- CTV News
Canadian teen Mboko earns first career Grand Slam win in opening-round of French Open
Canada's Victoria Mboko celebrates beating New Zealand's Lulu Sun during their first round match of the French Tennis Open, at the Roland-Garros stadium, in Paris, Sunday May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) PARIS — Canadian teen Victoria Mboko earned her first career Grand Slam victory with a 6-1, 7-6 (4) opening-round win over New Zealand's Lulu Sun on Sunday at the French Open. Mboko broke on two of her three opportunities while saving all seven of her opponents' break-point chances. The 18-year-old from Toronto has now won all eight sets she's played over the past week-plus on the clay courts of Roland-Garros — including six in a trio of victories in the qualifying rounds. Sun, a 2024 Wimbledon quarterfinalist, outdid the teen with seven aces and won 80 per cent of her first-serve points. However, Sun had 32 forced errors compared to Mboko's 20. Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., is scheduled to face Serbia's Olga Danilovic later in the day in women's singles action. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2025. The Canadian Press
