Victoria Mboko remained upbeat after losing to two-time Grand Slam winner Barbora Krejcikova at the US Open, calling the defeat a “learning opportunity”.
Following her heroic run at the Canadian Open at the beginning of August, a lot was expected of the 18-year-old at the season-ending Grand Slam as she had surged up the WTA Rankings on the back of her title run and found herself seeded at Flushing Meadows.
But the draw gods were not kind to Mboko as she was handed a tough opening assignment against former world No 2 Krejcikova.
And experience triumphed over youth as the 29-year-old Krejcikova won 6-3, 6-2, but Mboko is taking the positives with the negatives.
“I mean, of course I’m a little bit disappointed that I lost today, but, you know, reflecting back at it, I mean, Barbara, she’s a two-time Grand Slam champion and she obviously has a great level,” she said.
“It’s obviously a learning opportunity for me. And going forward, I’m always open to growing and learn from many mistakes and take this overall match as a learning opportunity.”
The Canadian hadn’t played a competitive match since beating Naomi Osaka in the final of the WTA 1000 event in Montreal in August 8 as she was nursing a wrist injury, but she says there were no flare-ups during the match.
“I had a previous injury like before in Montreal when I kind of fell on it a little bit and I just taped it up for US Open just to keep it stable and have it, I guess, somewhat okay for the match.
“Of course, it was sometimes maybe not bothering me a bit, but I think it was just to keep it pretty stable and good.”
The teenager added: “It felt like a little bit like the knees at Wimbledon that every day there was just like a little more tape and a little more tape and a little more tape on it.
“I mean, to be honest, coming into US Open, I actually had a week of preparation. I started hitting, I think, on Tuesday. I didn’t have that much preparation going into this tournament [as] I didn’t play Cincinnati or Cleveland.
“So to be prepared for this tournament, I needed to take as many good protocols as I could. So having the tape on, having, like, I mean, doing what I need to do off court, rehab, prevention was really important for me if I wanted to compete here. Of course, my focus was to be ready for the US Open, so I tried to do as many things as possible so I’d be okay to play.”
With her debut US Open main draw campaign over, Mboko is expected to only return to action during the Asia swing.
Although the first tournament – the Korea Open – starts on September 15 in Seoul, her name is not on the entry list so she will most likely only feature the following week at the WTA 1000 China Open where she is expected to be seeded.
Mboko said: “Going forward, there’s a little break until the Asia swing, so I want to make sure everything is great with my fitness and, and how I take care of it for the next couple of days and hopefully I’m going to be ready by then.”
