When the US Open draw was released, the clash between two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova and recently-crowned Montreal winner Victoria Mboko was the most eye-catching first-round matchup of them all.
Not only did it pit 18-year-old Mboko’s youth against Krejcikova’s experience, but it indicated just how quickly things can change in tennis. At the start of 2025, Krejcikova was a Top 10 player, and Mboko outside the Top 300. But this week, the surging Mboko was the seeded player at No. 22, while Krejcikova’s current position of No. 62 means she is unseeded in New York.
US Open: Draws | Scores | Order of play
Krejcikova’s slide in the rankings owes more to her six months off tour due to a back injury this year than her quality, and the Czech demonstrated that emphatically with a 6-3, 6-2 win in 1 hour and 23 minutes. Her tactical nous was on show from the start: alternating knifing slices with heavy clouts off both wings, she effectively prevented Mboko from finding a rhythm while setting points up for her own winners.
Mboko, who sustained a wrist injury during her Montreal title run and withdrew from Cincinnati the following week to recover, seemed hampered at times by it. Though she delivered a scattering of her signature backhand winners down the line, the Canadian teenager shook out her heavily-strapped wrist several times, and coughed up 10 double faults. That included two in her opening game, two in the last game of the opening set, two more to drop serve at the start of the second and two in the final game of the match.
By contrast, Krejcikova’s serve got better and better as the match went on. She won 81% of her first-serve points overall, and conceded only three points behind her delivery in the second set. And a ranking far below her career high of No. 2 has not bothered her in the past: she won both of her major titles, Roland Garros 2021 and Wimbledon 2024, while ranked outside the Top 30.
Krejcikova will next face Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima, who snapped a 10-match losing streak by saving seven match points to defeat Olga Danilovic 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6[9] on Sunday.