{"id":430312,"date":"2026-01-24T13:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/430312\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T13:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:27:10","slug":"canadian-phenom-victoria-mboko-set-to-duel-no-1-aryna-sabalenka-at-australian-open-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/430312\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian phenom Victoria Mboko set to duel No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka at Australian Open \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MELBOURNE \u2013 Victoria Mboko will test herself against the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n<p>The 19-year-old Canadian phenom faces world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open fourth round Saturday in Canada, Sunday in Australia, at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n<p>Sabalenka is a two-time winner at the Grand Slam tennis tournament, while Mboko, one of the sport\u2019s rising teenage stars, is making her Aussie Open debut.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/db4f13487744369c0c492526899f1fd0e569bc02836f700bf62a43826fd8e202.jpg\" data-pswp- data-pswp-width=\"1024\" data-pswp-height=\"682\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/db4f13487744369c0c492526899f1fd0e569bc02836f700bf62a43826fd8e202.jpg\" alt=\"Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus reacts after defeating Anastasia Potapova of Austria in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo\/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAryna Sabalenka of Belarus reacts after defeating Anastasia Potapova of Austria in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo\/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)<\/p>\n<p>Mboko advanced to the round of 16 with a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 victory over 14th-seeded Clara Tauson of Denmark on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Seeded 17th in the tournament, Mboko approaches a top-10 ranking after beginning last season outside the top 300. She won two WTA titles \u2014 including a thrilling win as a wild card at the National Bank Open in Montreal last August \u2014 in a breakout 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p>Mboko and Sabalenka will go head-to-head in a match for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s super cool. I\u2019ve never played a current No. 1 in the world. That\u2019s going to be a very different experience,\u201d Mboko said. \u201cI assume we\u2019d be playing on Rod Laver, as well. I\u2019ve never played on a Grand Slam centre court either. A lot of firsts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be doing that on Sunday is, I think, really cool. Just to show what I got.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sabalenka said she\u2019s never spoken with Mboko, nor shared a practice court, but has been impressed with what she\u2019s seen.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tThe Warm-Up<\/p>\n<p class=\"frequency\">Winnipeg Jets Game Days<\/p>\n<p>On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"email-subscribe-link button the-warmup inline-block-logged-in\">Sign up for The Warm-Up<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/theWarm-up-tile.jpg\" alt=\"Sign up for The Warm-Up\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was watching some matches. Yeah, she\u2019s a great player,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cShe\u2019s a fighter. She\u2019s playing really good, aggressive tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like maybe for me, it would be really tough to handle the success at a young age,\u201d she added. \u201cBut I feel like now seeing these girls, so like young age achieving so much, playing such great tennis, being really mature, it\u2019s incredible. I feel like they mature much faster than I did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mboko is the lone Canadian remaining in the singles draw.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 With files from The Associated Press<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 24, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE \u2013 Victoria Mboko will test herself against the world\u2019s best. The 19-year-old Canadian phenom faces world No.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-430312","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\/430312","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=430312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}