ACE Tennis Alumni Victoria Mboko recently reached the final of the Australian Open Junior Girls Doubles. Mboko, a long time resident of Burlington, Ontario and a member of the Canadian National Team partnered with London’s Kayla Cross to win 4 matches before falling in the finals to the number 1 seeds in the event by a score of 6-4, 6-3.
Mboko who grew up training with the ACE Tennis Academy from Age 4, is a multiple ITF Junior Champion and currently ranked #22 on the ITF World Junior Tour. Cross [2005] is the highest Canadian ranked player at # 18. Both girls come from tennis families. The Mboko’s have had three other siblings with national rankings, while the Cross family, father and uncle played at London All Canadian. Two of Kayla’s brothers were also highly ranked national juniors. Attached is an article recently published by Tennis Canada on the young up and comer.
For more coverage, check out this article from our contributing partner, Tennis Canada:
Cross and Mboko Can Hold Heads High After Australian Open Junior Doubles Final Loss
BY TENNIS CANADA
In the final, Cross and Mboko faced their most difficult test yet, the tournament’s No. 1 seeds Clervie Ngounoue of the United States and Diana Shnaider of Russia. They got off to the perfect start, however, consolidating an early break of serve to take a 3-1 lead. Their opponents levelled proceedings at 4-4 and produced another crucial break to take the first set 6-4.
Ngounoue and Shnaider took that momentum into the second set and began it strongly by going up 3-0. Cross and Mboko showed their resilience by winning the next three games to bring the scores even, but a second break of serve for their opponents saw them retake the lead. It was an advantage that would carry Ngounoue and Shnaider to the title as the second set finished 6-3.
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