French Open: Canadian teen Victoria Mboko wins her first Grand Slam match and looks for more
PARIS AP Victoria Mboko is still just still rather new to the top level of professional tennis and yet with a big serve a terrific backhand and enviable court coverage the Canadian is making the preponderance of her first season on tour including a success in her Grand Slam debut on Sunday at the French Open When it was mentioned that her - - elimination of Wimbledon quarterfinalist Lulu Sun meant Mboko has claimed all eight sets she s played over the past week-plus on the red clay at Roland-Garros including six in a trio of triumphs in the qualifying rounds the teen laughed revealing the braces on her teeth This does obviously feel really quick for me Although it feels quick I feel like I m also adapting very swiftly I want to be in this level commented Mboko represented by talent agency IMG since the age of To adapt really fast is really key to me The more I feel like I make it seem normal to me the more normal it s going to be in these tournaments Against the left-handed Sun Mboko s serve which she considers her event s greatest strength played a major role in the outcome With her father and two of her older siblings in the stands at Court a short walk from Court Suzanne-Lenglen Mboko reached a top speed of mph and delivered seven aces She won all of her institution games saving all seven break points accumulated by Sun I love to dictate points on my serve and I love to use that as an opportunity to be more aggressive and be up in the tally noted Mboko who is at present ranked th Especially in women s tennis having a good serve and holding all the time is pretty crucial It helps me get out of a lot of sticky situations Her favorite member as a kid not all that long ago authentically was Serena Williams whose Grand Slam titles often came with the help of top-notch serving I inevitably modeled myself on the idea of her battle Of subject not everything I do is the same But she had such a powerful competition and that s something that I would love to replicate and love to present my meeting off of that Mboko commented It s great to have a role model like that and try to do something like she did Mboko began to really get noticed in the world of tennis at the start of this year when she won matches in a row all in straight sets to earn four lower-level International Tennis Federation titles Her first WTA match arrived at the Miami Open in March and she won that debut too She s been impressing opponents along the way including U S Open champion Coco Gauff Mboko pushed the American who is ranked No right now to three sets on clay at the Italian Open this month She s playing top-level tennis Gauff announced after that win For sure on the movement I would say she s up there with me on that As far as the other parts of her event she s obviously a big hitter can play well moves pretty well has a nice backhand same on the forehand Mboko grew up playing mostly on indoor hard courts in Canada and calls that her favorite surface for my whole life That explained she s starting to get used to and enjoy the clay used at the French Open In the future I guess we ll see You never know I feel like I ve been doing pretty OK on the clay so far even though it was my least favorite surface and I thought it was my worst surface too Mboko revealed But you never know Howard Fendrich has been the AP s tennis writer since Find his stories here https apnews com author howard-fendrich More AP tennis https apnews com hub tennis Source
