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Victoria Mboko is off to the fourth round of the Australian Open.

The 19-year-old from Toronto defeated 14th-seeded Clara Tauson of Denmark 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 to advance on Friday local time.

Mboko, the 17th seed, had six aces but had to work through nine double faults at the Grand Slam tennis event. She also broke on five of her 13 opportunities and won 65 per cent of her first-serve points.

Tauson had five aces, four double faults, broke on five of her six chances and won 63 per cent of her first-serve points. She worked back from a 5-4 deficit in the second set before Mboko ran away with the match in the third set.

Mboko will face top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in the fourth round, after the Belarusian defeated Anastasia Potapova in her third-round matchup on Thursday.

Sabalenka overcame several bouts of inconsistent play Friday to beat Anastasia Potapova 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) and advance to the fourth round at the Australian Open.

Sabalenka, chasing her third Australian Open title in four years, led 6-5 and 40-0 in the opening set but Potapova saved all three set points to send it to a tiebreaker. Sabalenka led 3-0 in the tiebreaker before Potapova levelled at 3-3.

Sabalenka held two more set points and clinched the set when she laced a backhand down the line off Potapova’s second serve.

After trailing 4-0 in the second set, Potapova rallied to tie it 4-4 and again force a tiebreaker. Potapova had three set points to win the set in the tiebreaker, but Sabalenka rallied when the pressure was on.

“She played incredible tennis,” Sabalenka said of Potapova in her on-court TV interview. “I was always on the back foot. There are days where you just have to fight and . . . it was such a fight.”

Sabalenka won the Australian Open title in 2023 and 2024 and was the runner-up a year ago to Madison Keys. Sabalenka has also won the U.S. Open twice.

Earlier, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani advanced to the third round of women’s doubles play with a 6-2, 6-4 win over France’s Elsa Jacquemot and Colombia’s Emiliana Arango.

The fifth-seeded Dabrowski and Stefani will next face ninth-seeded duo Cristina Bucsa of Spain and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States. 

— with files from Sportsnet Staff