Sabalenka praises ‘future Grand Slam champion’ Mboko

Aryna Sabalenka embraces Victoria Mboko at the netImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Mboko missed out on her fifth top-10 win of ​the year

In the women’s draw, world number one Aryna Sabalenka held off Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko to keep her hopes of a first Indian Wells title alive.

Mboko pushed Sabalenka hard in the opening set but the Belarusian ran away with it in the tie-break before finally cracking the 19-year-old’s serve in the fifth game of the second to grab a 7-6 (7-0) 6-4 win.

Sabalenka, a two-time runner up at Indian Wells, praised her opponent’s bravery.

“A future star, a future Grand Slam champion, no doubt about that,” she reported of Mboko.

“It’s incredible to see these young girls these days, how brave they are. They go out there, they go after their shots, they’re aggressive, they’re fighting.

“It’s incredible to see and for sure we are going to play many more matches in the future.”

The four-time Grand Slam champion will face Czech 14th seed Linda Noskova in the semi-finals after she ended Australian qualifier Talia Gibson’s dream run with a 6-2 4-6 6-2 victory.

The 21-year-old Gibson, ranked 112 in the world and playing her first WTA 1000 main draw, had become the first qualifier in 11 years to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament when she beat seventh-seed Jasmine Paolini on Tuesday.

Related topics

  • Tennis

More on this story

  • Live scores, results and order of play
    Some tennis balls
  • Get tennis news sent straight to your phone
    • Published
      16 August 2025
    BBC Sport microphone and phone

✔ today silver rate

✔ 2026 winter olympics

✔ chat gtp

✔ silver rate today

✔ silver rate today live

✔ 2030 winter olympics

Read More

Sports

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *