American Sofia Kenin counter-punched her way back from a set down against Garbine Muguruza to win her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win in Melbourne on Saturday.
She has never defended a Grand Slam title before and that has made Sofia Kenin edgy.
Sofia Kenin advanced to the Toray Pan Pacific Open semifinals with a 6-3, 6-4 upset of No. 3 seed Daria Kasatkina on Friday in Tokyo.
Top seed Jessica Pegula survived a tough test to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 in a topsy-turvy Charleston Open semi-final on Saturday and will face compatriot Sofia Kenin in her fourth championship match of the season.
Mboko, currently ranked 85th in the world, became the first Canadian to defeat three former Grand Slam champions in a single WTA event in the Open Era, with victories over Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina.
Coco Gauff started her quest for a maiden Australian Open title with a straight games win over Kamilla Rakhimova to reach the second round.
American Sofia Kenin counter-punched her way back from a set down against Garbine Muguruza to win her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win in Melbourne on Saturday. The 21-year-old Kenin, seeded 14th at Melbourne Park, converted her second matchpoint against the twice Grand Slam champion, who double faulted on the final point, to end an engrossing contest that lasted more than two hours.
Images from the US Open women's singles first round matches, at Flushing Meadows, New York, on Tuesday.
Coco Gauff was given a solid workout by former champion Sofia Kenin but continued her lengthy winning streak
Garbine Muguruza outclassed former finalist Simona Halep in straight sets to enter the final of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Thursday. Meanwhile, Sofia Kenin sent world number one Ash Barty spinning out of the Melbourne Park semi-finals 7-6, 7-5 on Thursday, crushing Australian hopes of a first home-grown champion at the Grand Slam in 42 years. The 21-year-old Kenin showed her frustration at times, throwing her racquet on court, but managed to hang in and saved three breakpoints to hold for 3-3 and eventually force a tiebreaker.
Kenin, who was seeded 14th last year, came back from a set down to beat Spain's twice Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza in the Australian Open final.
Sofia Kenin said that the experience at Roland Garros changed her career trajectory.
While she was keen not to take anything away from an impressive performance by Muguruza in Friday's match, Kenin said she had been hampered by a groin problem.
The free-swinging Monfils broke Draper's serve in the fourth set as the clock moved past 11pm local time and saved five break points in an epic seventh game to move 5-2 ahead.
Sofia Kenin shed a few tears and needed to find a way to keep her emotions in check during an epic final against Garbine Muguruza, but soon after lifting her first Grand Slam title the American had to rush to calm someone else down - her mother. Kenin's mother gets so nervous that she finds it hard to watch her daughter play.
Elena Rybakina put on a brilliant performance to defeat favourite Aryna Sabalenka 64, 46, 64 and lift her first Australian Open trophy.
Iga Swiatek, who beat American 13th seed Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in the Wimbledon final on Saturday to win her sixth Grand Slam title.
Grand Slam champions Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens are set to take part in World TeamTennis
Sofia Kenin, defending champion Belinda Bencic and third seed Elina Svitolina made swift exits at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships
Venus Williams will miss the upcoming US Open due to an injury, becoming the third U.S. female after her sister Serena and Sofia Kenin to announce on Wednesday they would not take part in the final Grand Slam tournament of the year.
Mboko saved a match point against Kazakh ninth seed Rybakina in front of adoring home support
Images from Day 12 of the French Open, at Roland Garros, in Paris.
Czech reigning champion Marketa Vondrousova, seeded sixth and in the same quarter of the draw as Swiatek, will open against Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
Images from the women's singles final at the French Open, in Paris, on Saturday.
'Beautiful draw': Retiring Gasquet meets Sinner in French Open swansong
Zheng's win improved her record at the Pan Pacific Open to 8-1, with the 22-year-old having lost in the 2022 final to Liudmila Samsonova in her only previous appearance in the tournament.
Images from Day 9 of the 2020 Australian Open in Melbourne on Tuesday.
It was Gauff's second straights sets win at the tournament after a first round test against 2020 champion Sofia Kenin.
A look at the records of Garbine Muguruza and Sofia Kenin ahead of their Australian Open final on Saturday.
Jannik Sinner begins his Australian Open title defence against Nicolas Jarry while women's champion Aryna Sabalenka takes on 2017 U.S. Open winner Sloane Stephens
Novak Djokovic will begin his Australian Open title defence against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, while reigning women's champion Sofia Kenin meets wild card Maddison Inglis, following the draw for the year's first Grand Slam on Friday.
Carlos Alcaraz swatted aside Serbian Dusan Lajovic as Canadian Bianca Andreescu cruised past American Sofia Kenin in straight sets at Miami Open.
Images from Day 4 of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Thursday.
Zheng Qinwen saw off a spirited challenge from Diana Shnaider to secure a hard-fought 7-6(5), 6-3 win in their Pan Pacific Open semi-final on Saturday and set up a title clash against American Sofia Kenin.
Coco Gauff forgot to bring her rackets to the court but reminded her rivals of her French Open title ambitions with a commanding win while Daniil Medvedev lost his composure on a cold and blustery Tuesday as he crashed out in the opening round.
As Coco Gauff ponders a fortnight without tennis following her first-round loss at Wimbledon, she might be tempted to phone one of the sport's most accomplished coaches.
Yuan broke Stephens when the American was serving for the match at 6-5. Stephens led 5-4 in the tie-break but could not hold on to her advantage and crashed out.
Factbox on Iga Swiatek, who defeated Sofia Kenin to win her maiden Grand Slam title at the French Open on Saturday.
Images from Sunday's action at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
In an exciting back-and-forth rubber lasting three hours 45 minutes, Siniakova held off the 19-year-old Fed Cup debutante to give the Czechs a 3-0 win in the final against a United States team who were the defending champions but were missing their top players.
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