Victoria Mboko’s steady start to the season continued Thursday at the Adelaide International, where the 19-year-old Canadian ended Madison Keys’ title defense with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory at the WTA 500 event on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz.

The win was Mboko’s third three-set match in as many outings this week and sent her into the latter stages of the tournament after more than two hours on court against the reigning champion.

Adelaide: Scores | Draws | Order of play

From a set and a break ahead, things grew complicated for Mboko against Keys, who also won the Adelaide title in 2022. But the reigning Australian Open champion lost steam in the final set, and Mboko secured the second Top 10 victory of her young career in 1 hour, 53 minutes.

The Canadian won five straight games after Keys held serve to open the final set. Mboko benefited from an uneven performance by the defending champion, who committed 41 unforced errors and — despite serving nine aces — faced 12 break points and was broken six times.

“I know she won this tournament last year, and of course, Australian Open, and I knew coming into this match that it would be a big fight,” Mboko said afterward. 

“I think there was one moment in the second set where she hit three return winners off my serve, so that was pretty humbling. She is where she is for a reason, and I think to play these kind of players, you have to get used to receiving those kinds of balls. It was great tennis from her, and I’m glad I got it done.”

The eighth seed will now slide into favored position in the semifinals as she seeks her third career final, all of which have come since her breakout run on home soil in Montreal last August. In the first round at that tournament, she beat Australia’s Kimberly Birrell — and the pair will play again this time with the unseeded Birrell now benefitting from home-crowd advantage.

The 27-year-old Gold Coast resident advanced to her first career WTA 500-level semifinal with her own three-set triumph — a 5-7 6-1, 7-5 epic against Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian that lasted 3 hours and 4 minutes.

The World No. 107, who has reached two WTA 250 titles in her career to date, regrouped after losing a 5-2 lead in the first set to break new ground at this level, and won the last three games of the match as well. 

“I just kept telling myself to keep trying and fighting for every point,” Birrell said afterward. “When I came back out for the second set, I just told myself that I’ll get those opportunities again if I kept fighting.”

Andreeva drops just two games against Joint to make Adelaide semis

The top-half semifinal will pit former doubles partners Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider against each other. The pair, silver medalists at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, both advanced in straight sets. No. 9 seed Shnaider defeated No. 6 seed Emma Navarro 6-3, 6-3, while No. 3 seed Andreeva needed just 67 minutes to dismiss Maya Joint 6-2, 6-0.

After losing six of eight matches against opponents on home soil between August 2024 and the end of 2025, Andreeva has already recorded two wins over Australian players in Australia in 2026. Following her three-set victory over Olivia Gadecki in Brisbane last week, the 18-year-old was dominant against 19-year-old Joint in their first professional meeting. (Andreeva won their only junior encounter, on clay, in 2022.)

Joint’s bold play in saving four break points to hold in the opening game hinted at a tight contest — but instead, Andreeva steadily increased the pressure. Constructing points with corner-to-corner precision, her accuracy contrasted with Joint’s 24 unforced errors, many coming off the backhand wing.

Andreeva defeated Shnaider 6-2, 6-3 in their only previous meeting, in the first round of Brisbane in 2023.