By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, August 25, 2025
Photo credit: Sarah Stier/Getty
NEW YORK—In one brief moment, Barbora Krejcikova was completely disarmed by Vicky Mboko.
In the first game of the second set, an Mboko drive dislodged the vibration damper in Krejcikova’s racquet turning the two-time major champion, chair umpire, crew and even Mboko into a search party squad scouring Louis Armstrong Stadium court for the quarter-sized dampener.
Remarkably, the chair umpire proved to be a visionary findng the wayward dampener stuck hidden behind the Evian cooler.
The 2024 Wimbledon winner Krejcikova proceeded to mute Mboko for the rest of the match, rolling to a 6-3, 6-2 US Open first-round win.
This match between future Hall of Famer Krejcikova and charismatic Canadian star Mboko offered contrasting styles and promise of drama.
In the end, Krejcikova’s all-court game—and superior variation—were too much for the 18-year-old Mboko, who was playing her first match since her riveting wild card run to the Montreal championship earlier this month.
Foreboding signs for Mboko were evident at the start as she took the court wearing heavy taping around the right wrist.
The 22nd-seeded Mboko injured her wrist during her fall to the court against another former Wimbledon champion, Elena Rybakina, during her 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) semifinal triumph in Montreal.
In Montreal, Mboko electrified home fans, taming her tennis hero, a cranky Naomi Osaka, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the final. The teenager turned on fans and made history—she’s the second-youngest woman to defeat four Grand Slam champions en route to a WTA title—but perhaps aggravated the wrist issue as she pulled out of Cincinnati earlier this month.
Whether it was the wrist, the nerves making her US Open debut and just third major main-draw appearance or the challenge of the highly-skilled Krejcikova, Mboko didn’t serve with the same confidence. She double faulted to open the match—one of 10 double faults overall—and struggled to control her running forehand.
A calm Krejcikova drew 30 unforced errors from Mboko and gave little away to her opponent, who celebrates her 19th birthday tomorrow.
The Czech veteran, who won the 2022 US Open doubles championship, did to Mboko what Osaka could not. When she made Mboko move, Krejcikova sometimes closed at knocking off a volley or she played short angled-slices to prevent the Canadian from playing run and chase defense and extending points.
Krejcikova broke to open and laced the center stripe with an ace going up 3-1 after 21 minutes.
Successive double faults from Mboko helped Krejcikova earn double set point in the ninth game. When Mboko sent a backhand deep, Krejcikova closed a one-set lead after 43 minutes.
Mboko’s two-handed backhand is a compact, forceful shot, but she sometimes tends to play it down the line too often, which opened her up for Krejcikova’s counter attack with the sharp-angled forehand crosscourt.
In those forehand exchanges, Krejcikova’s variety—she can hit the short angle forehand, take all the pace off the slice forehand, or spin it off the court deep into the corner—unsettled the teenager.
The runaway vibration dampener only briefly slowed the 29-year-old Czech’s roll. Krejcikova burst out to a 3-0 second-set lead. Mboko held for 1-3 after 66-minutes sparking a roar from Armstrong fans, who were firmly behind the Canadian.
On this afternoon, nothing could stop the world No. 62. Krejcikova hammered an inside-out forehand for 5-2 after 77 minutes.
The 2021 US Open quarterfinalist closed in one hour, 23 minutes.
On a day in which Krejcikova’s friend and former Czech Billie Jean King Cup teammate Petra Kvitova made her major farewell bowing to Diane Parry, 6-1, 6-0, on Grandstand, the 2024 Wimbledon winner looked sharp.
Krejcikova, who appears healthy playing her 22nd career major, will try to reach the US Open third round for the first time in four years when she meets Japanese Moyuka Uchijima in round two.
