Roland-Garros: Zheng first to qualify today, eliminates Mboko in her Grand Slam debut

Qinwen Zheng beat Victoria Mboko 6-3, 6-4 on Friday and will play the winner of the match between Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska and Russian Liudmila Samsonova, the No 19 seed, in the next round

Zheng Qinwen, Rome, 2025 © Inside/Psnewz

Cédric Rouquette

May 30, 2025

Roland Garros •Third round • Completed

See draw

V. MbokovsQ. Zheng

Chinese No. 8 seed Qinwen Zheng was the first player to reach the last 16 of the women’s draw at Roland-Garros, defeating Canadian qualifier Victoria Mboko 6-3, 6-4 on Friday morning.

“She hits the ball really hard, and then she had a great serve”, the Chinese said about her opponent. “She had, you know, huge power. She moves on the court really well. It was honestly really tricky and tough match, because I know if my mental goes a bit down or lose focus, I feel she gonna turn around the match.”

“I would say today I had one of the greatest tennis that I play here so far.”

Victoria Mboko said : “I find that Qiweng was dictating a lot. Especially I think she had a really great forehand that was able to open up the court a lot easier than I could. I think she has a really great serve, too. She has a lot of good accuracy. She was hitting a lot of lines. That made a big difference. I was not able to break as much as she was able to because I think she was just really serving very powerful. I couldn’t really keep up with her speed on some of the shots.”

Zheng, currently ranked No. 7 in the world and a second-round loser last year, will face either Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska or No. 19 seed Liudmila Samsonova of Russia in her next match, with a chance to equal her best result in Paris — a round of 16 finish in 2022.

The 22-year-old has yet to drop a set this year at Roland-Garros, having previously beaten Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (6-4, 6-3) and Colombia’s Emiliana Arango (6-2, 6-3).

Mboko now in the Top 100

For Victoria Mboko, this match marks the end of a breakthrough run in what was her Grand Slam debut.

Ranked No. 120, the 17-year-old Canadian impressed with wins over New Zealand’s Lulu Sun (6-1, 7-6 [4]) and Germany’s Eva Lys (6-4, 6-4). Having played 45 matches already this season, Mboko is set to break into the WTA Top 100 for the first time in her career within the next ten days.

“For my first Grand Slam, the experience was pretty nice” Mboko said. “To make the round of 32 anyways, I think it’s a pretty good result for me. Today was a tough battle against Qinwen. She played really good tennis. Lots of things to learn and hopefully come back to my next tournament with some more positives and improved on my game.”

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