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Canada’s Victoria Mboko withdrew from her first-round match at the HSBC Championships on Wednesday after sustaining a knee injury during the second set.
Mboko, seeded third at The Queen’s Club in West London, slipped behind the baseline and immediately grabbed her left knee while facing former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova of Czechia.
The 19-year-old from Burlington, Ont., lost the first set 6-2 and was up 4-3 in the second and trying to break with Pliskova serving at deuce.
Mboko got up on her own but then told a physiotherapist there was “no stability right now.”
She walked gingerly to her bench and put a towel to her face as she sat down. Minutes later, she retired from the match.
It was Mboko’s first singles match on grass this season.
“I think we played quite a good game today, and I think she was improving as the match was going,” Pliskova said after the match. “I wish her only the best, and of course, this is not the way how we want to win. So hopefully she’s going to be fine for Wimbledon.”
The injury puts in doubt Mboko’s participation for the rest of the short grass season, including Wimbledon in three weeks, as well as her doubles partnership at Queen’s Club with tennis legend Serena Williams.
WATCH | Serena Williams, Mboko victorious in Queen’s Club opener:
After playing her last competitive match on September 2, 2022, 44-year-old Serena Williams was victorious in her return at the London Queen’s Club. Williams and her partner Victoria Mboko of Burlington, Ont., defeated New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and American Nicole Melichar-Martinez 7-6 (2), 6-2.
The 44-year-old Williams made her return to competitive tennis after nearly four years on Tuesday, when she teamed with Mboko for a 7-6 (2), 6-2 win over New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States.
Williams and Mboko were scheduled to face Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Germany’s Laura Siegemund in the quarterfinals Thursday at the WTA 500 event.
Earlier, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani continued their run of good form with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova and Japan’s Miyu Kato.
Dabrowski and Stefani are coming off a clay season that saw them win the Strasbourg International and advance to the semifinals of the French Open.
The second seeds will face Americans McCartney Kessler and Iva Jovic in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
Auger-Aliassime, Shapovalov reunite for win in Netherlands
Canadian tennis stars Félix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov joined forces for a 6-3, 7-6 (8) win over Czechia’s Petr Nouza and Austria’s Neil Oberleitner in men’s doubles first-round action at the Libema Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
The pair fired 15 aces and overcame a strong service game from Nouza and Oberleitner, who were accurate on 81 per cent of first serves and won 79 per cent of those points.
Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov took advantage of a rare opportunity when they scored the only break of the match in the first set. Nouza and Oberleitner faced break point just one other time.
The Canadians saved all six break points they faced. They will next face the Dutch team of Tallon Griekspoor and Botic van de Zandschulp in the quarterfinals.
Montreal’s Auger-Aliassime, who rarely plays in doubles events, last teamed with Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., at last year’s Halle Open in Germany, where they reached the semifinals of the grass-court tournament.
The two players, who came up from the junior ranks at roughly the same time, have spoken in the past about how their friendship off the court gives them chemistry in competition despite the gaps between partnerships.
Auger-Aliassime, ranked No. 4 in the world and seeded first overall in the men’s draw, plays his first singles match of the tournament Thursday against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics in second-round action.
Shapovalov lost his first-round singles match to Croatia’s Marin Cilic on Monday.
In women’s doubles, Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., and France’s Lois Boisson defeated Dutch duo Anouk Koevermans and Suzan Lamens 6-1, 6-4 in a first-round match.
Andreescu and Boisson broke their opponents four times on 10 chances while fighting off two of the three break points they faced.
Boisson and Andreescu will face Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Taiwan’s Liang En-Shou in Thursday’s quarterfinals