(August 25, 2025) FLUSHING, NY – Two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova stopped the up-and-coming No. 22 seed Victoria Mboko 6-3, 6-2 in Louis Armstrong Stadium on day two of the US Open on Tuesday.
Mboko, the 18-year-old from Canada, was coming off a win at the Montreal Masters event, her first WTA tournament title.
Mboko’s right wrist was heavily taped and may have hindered her play, especially her serve, as the Canadian was broken four times. She hit 10 double faults and only won 13 points on her opponent’s serve.
Krejcikova, a Wimbledon and French Open champion, hit 18 winners to 14 unforced errors, winning 81 percent of her first service points.
“It’s huge what she achieved already and how well she played,” she said in her on-court interview. “When I was watching, I was really happy that she made it because it was a huge victory for her, so good luck to her.”
The woman from Czechia, who has been plagued by injuries throughout the years, is happy to be healthy. “As of now, yes,” she said. “I don’t know what it’s going to be tomorrow — but as of now, yes!”
“I mean, I’m really happy I’m here,” she said in her media conference. I’m really happy I’m playing. I’m really happy I can practice, and then I mean compete then challenge myself, play against other girls. I’m really happy, I have a great team here. So we have a lot of fun, we have a really nice time off the court. as well as on the court.”
“I saw pretty much all the matches from quarters in Montreal,” she told media. “So I was watching that, and this, I mean, strategy, you know, like playing my game, try to you know, get into my rallies, try to play with the with the instinct and I think today I was serving really well, and I had a huge percentage of points that I want after the first serve. So I think that was working really well today.”
“Of course I’m a little bit disappointed that I lost today, but you know I’m reflecting back at it,” Mboko said to media. “I mean, Barbora, she’s a two-time Grand Slam Champion and she’s obviously has a great level. So, I mean, it’s obviously a learning opportunity for me and I going forward. I’m always open to grow and learn from many mistakes and take this overall match as a learning opportunity.”
Tennis Panorama asked Mboko about her heavily taped right wrist: “Well, I mean, I had a previous injury, like, before in Montreal when I kind of fell in a little bit, and I just taped it up for for US Open just to keep it stable and have it, I guess, somewhat okay for the match. I mean, of course, it was sometimes maybe not bothering me a bit, but I think it was just to keep it pretty stable and good.”
“I actually had a week of preparation,” Mboko said later in her media conference I started hitting, I think, on Tuesdays, so, I mean, I didn’t have that much preparation going into this tournament, let alone I didn’t play Cincinnati or Cleveland. So to be prepared for this tournament, I needed to take as many good protocols as I could. So having the tape on, having like, I mean, doing what I need to do off court rehab prevention was really important for me if I wanted to compete here. Of course, my focus was to be ready for the US. Open, so I tried to do as many things as possible, so I’d be okay to play.”
Mboko was surprised that so many American fans were there cheering for her.
“I was I was kind of surprised with how many people were there to support me,” she said. “I felt really happy and really grateful to have that many American fans who were cheering for me and very supportive. So I think that was amazing and I think that was one really big takeaway I can I can say that, yeah, they were there were so many great people.”
“There’s some positives to take away as well, and I think I’m happy with where I am, but, you know, I feel like this is the start of a long journey, so that’s also really exciting,” Mboko reflected. She celebrates her 19th birthday on Tuesday.
“But I mean going forward, there’s a little break until the Asia swings, so I want to make sure everything is great with my with my fitness and how I take care of it for the next couple of days.”
More to follow…
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