Canadian teen Victoria Mboko upsets top seed Coco Gauff to reach Montreal quarterfinals

MONTREAL (AP) — Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko upset top-seeded Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday night to reach the National Bank Open quarterfinals.

Gauff dropped to 2-3 since winning the French Open. She followed the major victory with opening losses in Berlin and Wimbledon, then overcame double-fault problems to win two three-set matches in Montreal. Gauff had five double-faults Saturday after having 23 in her opener against Danielle Collins and 14 against Veronika Kudermetova.

Read More: Coco Gauff clinches second Montréal comeback vs. Veronika Kudermetova

The 18-year-old Mboko, ranked 85th in the world, finished off the 21-year-old Gauff — who had 24 unforced errors — in 1 hour, 22 minutes.

“Your support was incredible,” Mboko told the crowd in French after a chorus of “Olé, Olé, Olé!” chants echoed around the venue. “I’m really happy to win today. .. It’s incredible. I’m so happy to beat such a great champion.”

Mboko will face the winner of the late match between Lin Zhu of China and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain.

In Rome in May, Gauff rallied to beat Mboko 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Earlier, 24th-seeded Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine and ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan set up a quarterfinal match. Kostyuk beat McCartney Kessler of the United States 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, and Rybakina topped Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine 5-7, 6-2, 7-5.