{"id":428086,"date":"2026-01-23T13:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/428086\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T13:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:14:08","slug":"victoria-mboko-wins-tense-third-round-tussle-to-set-up-sabalenka-showdown-australian-open-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/428086\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria Mboko wins tense third-round tussle to set up Sabalenka showdown | Australian Open 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victoria Mboko has given herself a shot at Aryna Sabalenka<\/a>, the world No 1, in the fourth round of the Australian Open, after the 19-year-old prodigy held her nerve at the end of an incredibly tense tussle to close out a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 win over the 14th seed, Clara Tauson.<\/p>\n

Mboko, seeded 17th in Melbourne, showed her mental toughness at the end of a quality match between two young players by playing an authoritative final set after squandering match points. The Canadian had served for the match at 7-6 (5), 5-3 before losing her service game to love. She then generated three match points at 5-4, but while Mboko was extremely tight, her Danish opponent struck the ball with total freedom to retrieve the break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was just self-belief at the end,\u201d Mboko said. \u201cI had so many chances in the second set but I\u2019ve got to give credit where it\u2019s due, she was playing incredible tennis so I just had to lock in, in the important moments. This is my first time here so I\u2019m really happy to go through to the fourth round.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory secures her first appearance in the fourth round of a slam, her previous best being a run to the French Open third round last year from qualifying. The Canadian\u2019s reward is a meeting with the two-time champion Sabalenka, who dragged herself into the fourth round in two tie-break sets, defeating Anastasia Potapova of Austria 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7).<\/p>\n

Although Sabalenka was frustrated with her level of play, her fighting spirit carried her through. She saved two set points in the second set tie-break, with Potapova double faulting on the Belarusian\u2019s first set point.<\/p>\n

\u201cAryna five years ago would probably be focusing too much on the way she feels and completely lose these games,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cNowadays with the experience, I learned a lot that it doesn\u2019t really matter how you feel, it\u2019s all about your mentality, your mental strength to be there, to just try your best, to put the ball ugly, with the terrible technique, with completely [the] body being disconnected, but just try to put it back and fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you never know. You have to stay there and you have to fight and you have to show your opponent that no matter how I feel, no matter what\u2019s going on, I\u2019ll still be there, I\u2019ll still be fighting, and I\u2019ll still be willing to find something that\u2019s going to help me to be willing to fight in the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka at her press conference after beating Anastasia Potapova. Photograph: James D Morgan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sabalenka entered her press conference wearing a Gucci bomber jacket and she opened the press conference by dramatically putting on Gucci sunglasses. The world No 1 announced on Thursday that she had joined the fashion house as a brand ambassador, another sign of the Belarusian\u2019s growing profile and marketability.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Daniil Medvedev continued to gain confidence on the court as the Russian three-time finalist impressively recovered from two sets down to return to the fourth round with a 6-7 (5), 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 win over Fabian Marozsan of Hungary. Great Britain\u2019s Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash, the ATP doubles No 1s, suffered a shock 7-6 (5), 6-4 loss to the Australians James McCabe and Li Tu in the men\u2019s doubles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria Mboko has given herself a shot at Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, in the fourth round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-428086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}