Victoria Mboko’s journey at the Toray Pan Pacific Open ended on Friday with a loss to Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals. The Canadian player displayed strong first-serve performance, winning 83.3% of her points in the match that lasted one hour and 31 minutes. Rybakina, seeded second in the tournament, secured her spot in the semifinals with five aces on the WTA 500 hard court.
This quarterfinal clash between Mboko and Rybakina was a rematch from a previous encounter where Mboko emerged victorious in the semifinals of the National Bank Open in Montreal. Following that win, the 19-year-old from Toronto went on to claim the tournament title as a wild-card entry.
In a separate development, Canadians Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov withdrew from their quarterfinal matches at the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament. Auger-Aliassime, a two-time winner of the ATP 500 event from Montreal, retired after dropping the first set to Jaume Munar of Spain. Shapovalov, hailing from Richmond Hill, Ontario, retired during his match against Brazil’s Joao Fonseca.
Auger-Aliassime, who recently clinched his third title of the year in Brussels, faced setbacks in his bid to qualify for the ATP Finals in Turin as a result of his withdrawal. Shapovalov, ranked world No. 23, encountered an early exit after a promising start against Fonseca, who ultimately advanced to the semifinals.
In the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the Tokyo Open, Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner Sofia Kenin fell to the duo of Luisa Stefani from Brazil and Timea Babos from Hungary.
The Swiss Indoors quarterfinal matchups saw Munar and Fonseca progress to the next stage, setting the stage for an exciting semifinal showdown between the two players.
