Burlington’s Victoria Mboko cruises into second round at French Open

Victoria Mboko, of Canada, serves against Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, during a quarterfinal match at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Indian Wells, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

PARIS — Canada’s Victoria Mboko had little trouble advancing to the second round of the French Open, defeating Czechia’s Nikola Bartunkova 6-1, 6-2 in her opening match Tuesday.

Mboko, coming off an appearance in the final of the Strasbourg International tournament last week, converted her sixth break in 10 chances in the deciding game to wrap the match up in 69 minutes.

The 19-year-old from Burlington, Ont., faced just two break points, defending one.

Mboko, the ninth seed in the women’s draw, is making her second appearance at the clay-court Grand Slam after advancing to the third round in her debut last year.

Mboko will next face another Czech opponent in Katerina Siniakova. The 30-year-old veteran is No. 36 in the world in singles competition and is also part of the top-ranked doubles team at Roland Garros with American Taylor Townsend.

Earlier, Denis Shapovalov was eliminated with a 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 loss to Portuguese qualifier Jaime Faria.

Faria scored a key break to go up 6-5 in the second set before serving for the win, to put Shapovalov on the brink of elimination.

The 22-year-old then went up 2-1 in the third set on an early break. Shapovalov fought back to win the next game on return, but another break restored Faria’s lead, and he served out from there.

The 27-year-old Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., showed some power on the slow clay courts at Roland Garros with 10 aces, but he cost himself with eight double faults and 48 unforced errors.

Shapovalov, who entered the French Open ranked 39th in the world, saw his season record fall to 8-11.

Later Tuesday, men’s fourth seed Félix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal faced Germany’s Daniel Altmaier.


This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2026.