Zheng passes Arango test; to meet surging Mboko next at Roland Garros
Zheng Qinwen may be only 22 years old, but she's already having to fend off hungry newcomers at Roland Garros.The No. 8 seed overcame the challenge of Emiliana Arango 6-2, 6-3 in a 1-hour, 37-minute contest that was a good deal tougher than the scoreline suggests. Arango was one of nine players making their Grand Slam debut in this year's main draw, and Zheng will next face another -- the surging 18-year-old qualifier Victoria Mboko, who advanced 6-4, 6-4 over Eva Lys.Roland Garros: Draws | Scores | 411Zheng's win over Arango was the Olympic gold medallist Zheng's eighth consecutive victory on the clay courts of Roland Garros -- a very different venue to her only previous meeting with the Colombian. That was in the humbler environs of a Covid-era ITF W25 event in Hamburg, Germany in 2021, a period of time that saw Zheng criss-cross Europe by car in search of ranking points to haul herself into the Top 100. They met in the first qualifying round; Zheng was a 6-4, 6-4 victor, and went on to win the trophy, one of six ITF titles she racked up in a 10-month timeframe.Four years on, Zheng will face a player who's been putting together a similarly spectacular run at ITF level. Mboko has travelled to the Caribbean, the United States, the United Kingdom and Portugal to rack up five titles this year, as well as reaching her first WTA 125 final in Parma. The Canadian's two outings at WTA 1000 level both ended in three-set second-round defeats to Top 15 players, Paula Badosa in Miami and Coco Gauff in Rome. In the first major of her career, Mboko has yet to drop a set as she's improved her season record to a remarkable 42-5.More to come...
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