Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko upsets top-seeded Coco Gauff to reach Montreal quarterfinals
MONTREAL — Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko upset top-seeded Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday night to reach the National Bank Open quarterfinals.
'Your support was incredible,' Mboko told the crowd in French after a chorus of 'Olé, Olé, Olé!' chants echoed around the venue. 'I'm really happy to win today. .. It's incredible. I'm so happy to beat such a great champion.'
Gauff dropped to 2-3 since winning the French Open. She followed the major victory with opening losses in Berlin and Wimbledon, then overcame double-fault problems to win two three-set matches in Montreal. Gauff had five double-faults Saturday after having 23 in her opener against Danielle Collins and 14 against Veronika Kudermetova.
'She's playing high-level tennis.' Gauff said. 'I think that's what showed today. I think she was the better player.'
The 18-year-old Mboko, ranked 85th in the world, finished off the 21-year-old Gauff — who had 24 unforced errors — in 1 hour, 2 minutes.
'When I was up 5-4, the crowd started cheering even louder, and everything got super noisy,' Mboko said. 'I used that as more fuel for myself and to pump myself up a little bit more. I just used the crowd to my advantage as much as I could.'
Mboko will face Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain, a 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 winner over Lin Zhu of China in a rain-interrupted match that ended just before midnight.
In Rome in May, Gauff rallied to beat Mboko 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
'I was actually really thinking about it a lot during the match,' Mboko said. 'I had flashbacks to when I played her in Rome a little bit. I just remember when she came out playing even better and stepped it up a bit better. Wanted to step my game up a little bit more and make sure I matched whatever she was producing, and I wanted to stay right there with her.'
Earlier, 24th-seeded Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine and ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan set up a quarterfinal match. Kostyuk beat McCartney Kessler of the United States 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, and Rybakina topped Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine 5-7, 6-2, 7-5.
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