New Delhi: Top seed Coco Gauff tumbled out of the National Bank Open after being upset by Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko.
Mboko won 6-1, 6-4 in an hour and 22 minutes to move to the quarter-finals, becoming the youngest woman to make the last eight in Montreal, since Gauff three years ago.
Since winning the French Open, Gauff has now won only two matches and lost three. She was beaten in the opening round at Berlin and Wimbledon and then managed to survive double-fault problems to win two three-set matches in Montreal.
On Saturday, he double-faulted five times, having made 23 in her opening round clash against Danielle Collins and 14 against Veronika Kudermetova in the next round.
Ranked 85th in the WTA list, Mboko benefitted from Gauff’s 24 unforced winners to script an upset win and is set to face the winner of a clash between Lin Zhu and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
“Your support was incredible. I’m really happy to win today. .. It’s incredible. I’m so happy to beat such a great champion,” Mboko said after the match as the crowd chanted “Olé, Olé, Olé!”.
Gauff had defeated Mboko 3-6 6-2 6-1 in Rome in May. “I’m sure we’re going to have many more battles in the future. Yeah, I think she’s going to have a lot of success on tour,” she said.
Meanwhile, Kostyuk, seeded 24th, defeated McCartney Kessler 5-7 6-3 6-3 while ninth seed Elena Rybakina beat Dayana Yastremska 5-7 6-2 7-5 to set up a meeting with each other in the quarters.
Defending champ Popyrin in quarters
In the men’s section, reigning champion Alexei Popyrin overcame fifth seed Holger Rune 4-6 6-2 6-3 to move to th last eight stage in Montreal
The 18th seed next faces the winner of top seed Alexander Zverev and 14th seed Francisco Cerundolo.
“I started this week not high on confidence, needing to get a grasp of the mental side. But this week I kind of just let go of all the pressure,” Popyrin said after his win.
“After the first set I was pissed [about not breaking]. But when I came back out to return again, it felt like I was in control of the match. I told myself to be aggressive on the next break point that I got, and from then on I felt quite comfortable.”