victoria mboko

Victoria Mboko fell just short of her third career title on Saturday.

The Canadian lost the Qatar Open final in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5, against Czechia’s Karolina Muchova.

Still, Mboko’s run will vault her into the top-10 of the WTA rankings for the first time, making her the seventh Canadian to achieve that feat in either the men’s or women’s list.

Mboko struggled some on serve against Muchova, facing eight break points and saving just five. The Canadian also won just 62 per cent of points on first serve compared to 77 per cent for Muchova.

She converted on her lone break opportunity.

“Making it to the finals is generally a positive thing, it’s never a negative,” Mboko said in her post-match press conference. “She played really great tennis. Playing top 10 players, my first time here too, I didn’t have many expectations (for) myself.

It was the first meeting between the players.
Mboko is now 13-4 on the season in singles play.

“She was just sharper on the most important points. She was able to stay solid in those points where I think I was missing a lot more than her. She had some really great shots that put me on defence,” Mboko said.

Mboko, the 19-year-old from Toronto, was ranked outside the top 300 at the beginning of last season. She went on a big winning run underneath the tour level before capturing the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers title last August in Montreal.

She claimed her second WTA title at the Hong Kong Open in November.

It was her second final of the season — she lost to Russian Mirra Andreeva in the Adelaide International final in January.

–with files from The Canadian Press