Canadian 10th seed Victoria Mboko continued her impressive debut at the BNP Paribas Open, defeating American Amanda Anisimova 6–4, 6–1 to reach the quarter-finals.
The victory marks her fifth win against a top-10 player and sets up a tantalising quarter-final clash against World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.
It continues a meteoric rise for the 19-year-old, who started 2025 outside the top 300 before winning last year’s Canadian Open. She now sits in the top 10, having already reached two finals this season.
In the press conference after her win, Mboko spoke about her mentality since bursting onto the scene last year.
“Well, yeah, I mean, I will agree everything came super fast, but I just think, I mean, I just think if you put a lot of pressure on yourself and have a lot of expectations for yourself, you’re not really going to perform the way you want to.
“So I just try to come to terms that with every tournament I play, it’s not going to be maybe the way I want it to, but I just want to give 100% effort, and there is always a lesson to learn.
“I feel like that’s the only way I’m going to improve myself. As long as each week I’m able to take something away and try to learn and grow from it, it’s only going to be upwards from here. Yeah, it’s a marathon, not a race, you know.”
Although Anisimova would have been well versed in her opponent’s power from the baseline, even she must have been surprised by the barrage of shots coming back her way. The American’s second serve proved a major weakness, particularly in the second set where she won only 10% of points behind it.
Her task was made even harder by Mboko’s clinical edge in clutch moments, as she converted all four of her break-point opportunities and won 81% of points behind her first serve.
The Canadian will be hoping to maintain this level of play in her quarter-final against top seed Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated her in straight sets in the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open.
Mboko spoke about the perspective she gained from that defeat and how it could help her going into her clash with the World No. 1.
“Well, I mean I could just say playing her in general, like I said before, she generates a really good ball. I feel like she was able to push me off the court a lot more and able to really stay aggressive against me.
“So hopefully I can hold my ground a bit more against her and try to kind of even it out a bit more.
“Yeah, we’ll see. I mean, it was my first time playing on a Grand Slam center court too, so I feel like there was a lot going on in my head, but yeah, we’ll see. It’s a new day, new tournament. Yeah.”
