(Adelaide) Canadian Victoria Mboko scored her second career victory against a player from top 10Thursday, winning 6-4, 4-6 and 6-2 against the American Madison Keys to reach the semi-finals of the Adelaide tournament.

Mboko (17^e), who is looking for a third WTA title, will cross swords with Australian Kimberly Birrell (107^e). Mboko defeated Birrell in Montreal, en route to the National Bank Open title last summer, in their only other duel on the circuit.

Mboko had previously defeated the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia (59^e) and the Russian Anna Kalinskaya (33^e) in Adelaide. This is her first tournament since Hong Kong, which she won in November 2025.

Keys (ninth) had won his last 11 matches in this tournament, winning the title last year. She also triumphed there in 2022. Last year, she then continued her momentum to lift the Australian Open trophy.

After suffering three breaks in the second set, Mboko was solid in the third set with balls in hand, giving Keys no break opportunities. In particular, she won 73% of the rallies with her second ball during the third round.

Mboko won 93 of 180 points (52%) in this match.

(Melbourne) Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime will face Portuguese Nuno Borges in the first round of the Australian Open tennis tournament, while Leylah Annie Fernandez will face Indonesian Janice Tjen, the draw revealed on Thursday.

Auger-Aliassime (seventh) won his only duel against Borges (46^e), last year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He could face the German Alexander Zverev, third racket in the world, in the quarter-finals.

Fernandez (22^e) and Tjen (56^e) will play against each other for the first time. Fernandez could meet American defending champion Madison Keys (ninth) in the third round.

Quebecer Gabriel Diallo (41^e) will have a lot to do if he wants to reach the second round, since he will face Zverev in the initial round.

The other Canadian in the running, Ontario’s Denis Shapovalov (23^e), has a meeting with the Chinese Yunchaokete Bu (64^e).

Among the women, the representative of the maple leaf Victoria Mboko (17^e) must face the Australian Emerson Jones (155^e). She could cross paths with Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, first in the world, in the fourth round.

Canadian Marina Stakusic also qualified for the main draw, a few hours before the draw.

Americans Coco Gauff and Venus Williams could meet in the second round, more than six years after they first faced each other in a major tournament. Gauff was 15 when she defeated Williams in the first round at Wimbledon.

Williams will also be the oldest player to participate in the Australian Open. At 45, she will overtake Japanese Kimiko Date, who was 44 when she lost in the first round in 2015.

The main draw matches will begin on Sunday.

In Thursday’s draw, Gauff was chosen to begin her journey against Kamilla Rakhimova, ranked 91^ewhile Williams, ranked 576^ewho made her Australian Open debut in 1998 and reached the final twice, will face 68th-ranked Olga Danilovic^ein the first round.

Gauff and Williams are in the same half of the draw as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who won back-to-back titles at Melbourne Park before losing in the final last year to American Madison Keys.

Sabalenka, who started her season by winning the title in Brisbane last week, could face 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu in the third round.

Defending champion Keys, who lost her quarter-final match in Adelaide in three sets on Thursday against Canadian Victoria Mboko, is in the same portion of the draw as her compatriots Jessica Pegula (No. 6) and Amanda Anisimova (No. 4).

World No. 2 Iga Swiatek, who hopes to complete her career Grand Slam by winning a first title at Melbourne Park, is in the bottom quarter of the table and could face the holder of four career major titles, Japan’s Naomi Osaka, in the fourth round.

On the men’s side, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic find themselves in the same half of the draw, which could result in a semi-final between the reigning champion and the winner of 24 career majors.

Djokovic, who has won 10 Australian Open titles but has not advanced past the semi-finals at Melbourne Park since 2023, played a friendly against American Frances Tiafoe at Rod Laver Arena, hours after the draw. He withdrew from a preseason tournament in Adelaide last week to give himself more time to prepare for the Australian Open.

World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz is in the side opposite Sinner and Djokovic, along with Tiafoe and sixth-seeded Australian Alex De Minaur.

With the Associated Press