(Adelaide) Canadian Victoria Mboko made her debut at the Adelaide tennis tournament on Monday, defeating Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia 5-7, 6-3 and 6-2.

Mboko, the eighth seed in the last preparatory tournament before the Australian Open, took two hours and eight minutes to overcome his opponent, 39^e world player. The Ontarian has a 2-1 career record against the Brazilian.

“It’s never easy against her,” Mboko admitted on court after her match. She is very talented. It was a difficult match, so to overcome this obstacle today… It’s a relief. »

“She has a good range of shots, she is very aggressive and she hits a very heavy ball. Honestly, I was just trying not to get pushed around. She hit some really good shots, so I have to take my hat off to her. In the end, I wanted to stay in the match as much as possible, and I fought very hard on every point,” she summed up.

This result set the table for a second round duel against the Russian Anna Kalinskaya, who sharply ousted the Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-0, 6-3. In their last duel, in the quarter-finals in Hong Kong in 2025, Mboko was leading 6-1, 3-1 against Kalinskaya when the Russian gave up.

This was Mboko’s first singles tournament on the WTA circuit since that of Hong Kong – which she won – in November 2025. And her start to the match was not very easy. Far from it.

While trailing 6-5 in the first set, she committed her first two double faults of the match to offer a first break point to her rival, who converted it to win the set.

The representative of the maple leaf, however, did not give up, and she quickly regained her composure. In the final two sets, Mboko recorded 18 winners, against just nine unforced errors, and she converted six of her seven break points.

The 19-year-old, winner of the National Bank of Montreal Open in 2025, also found her serving touch, placing 82% of her first balls in play in the second set, and finishing the match with an average of 76%. This formidable efficiency prevented Haddad Maia from coming from behind.

Furthermore, Quebecer Leylah Annie Fernandez, 22^e racket in the world, will make her debut in singles in Adelaide in the evening against the Russian Diana Shnaider, 11^e world player.

On Sunday, Fernandez and her doubles partner, Hungarian Timea Babos, defeated American Sofia Kenin and German Laura Siegemund 6-3, 0-6 and 10-6. They will face the Czech Katerina Siniakova and the Chinese Zhang Shuai, second seeds, in the quarter-finals on Tuesday evening.

On the men’s side, Quebecer Gabriel Diallo, 41^ewill begin his singles journey in Adelaide on Monday evening against the Italian Andrea Vavassori, 336^e.

(Paris) The Swiss Belinda Bencic found the top 10 worldwide (10^e+1) Monday for the first time since the birth of his daughter, the day after the final lost by Switzerland in the United Cup, one week before the start of the Australian Open.

At 28, Bencic, who gave birth in April 2024, has won all five of her United Cup matches, including against Poland’s Iga Swiatek, who remains 2^e to the WTA, and to the Italian Jasmine Paolini, who gains a place in the world ranking (7^e).

“I’m really happy to come back to the top 10 : it was a huge goal,” savored the Swiss who had reached 4^e world rank in February 2020. She started the 2025 season at 421^e rank.

Winner with the greatest authority in Brisbane where seven of the ten best in the world were present, Aryna Sabalenka consolidated her place as No.1 and will be the big favorite in Melbourne.

Marta Kostyuk gained six places (20^e) after her final in Brisbane where she had a series of victories against three players from top 10 : Amanda Anisimova, Mira Andreeva and Jessica Pegula.

Elina Svitolina, who won in Auckland, gains two places to 12^e world place.