Mboko equals best Grand Slam run, reaches Australian Open third round

Seventeenth seed Victoria Mboko is through to the third round of her first Australian Open after a straight-sets win over American Caty McNally in Melbourne on Wednesday. The result equals her best performance at a Grand Slam, matching her third-round appearance at Roland Garros last year.

Mboko, ranked a career-high No. 16 on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, was quick off the blocks, jumping to a 3-1 lead in the first set before McNally fought back to level it at 3-3. The Canadian broke serve for a second time in the 10th game to close out the set 6-4.

McNally began the second set on a promising note, breaking serve twice early to race to a 3-0 lead, but Mboko stormed back to win six consecutive games and seal a 6-4, 6-3 victory in 1 hour, 32 minutes. The win avenged Mboko’s first-round loss to the American in Austin in 2024, leveling their head-to-head record at 1-1. It also marked her ninth consecutive win against players ranked outside the top 50.

McNally was undone by her serve, hitting six double faults compared with two for Mboko. She also won only 26 percent of her second-serve points, while Mboko won 59 percent. The American was bidding for her first career win over a Top 20 player but now falls to 0-11 against players in that ranking bracket.

Mboko has been on a strong run in recent months. She ended the 2025 season by claiming her second WTA Tour singles title in Hong Kong and reached the final in Adelaide last week before arriving in Melbourne. The 19-year-old will take on 14th seed Clara Tauson of Denmark for a place in the round of 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.

Tauson needs three sets to get past Kudermetova

Tauson needed three sets and nearly two hours to get past Uzbekistan’s Polina Kudermetova. After the players split the first two sets, they went back and forth in the third. Twice the Dane went up a break, but each time Kudermetova fought back. Tauson scored a third break in the 11th game before holding serve to complete a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win and move into the round of 32 for the third time in four main-draw appearances in Melbourne. 

This will be the first meeting between Mboko and Tauson on the WTA Tour. The two are separated by four years in age and just two spots in the current rankings.