Victoria Mboko of Canada plays a forehand return to Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus during their fourth round match at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Saturday.Dita Alangkara/The Associated Press
Canada’s Victoria Mboko and Iva Jovic of the United States fell 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (10) to Belgium’s Elise Mertens and China’s Zhang Shuai in second-round women’s doubles action on Sunday.
Mboko was coming off being eliminated in singles play by world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the fourth round.
Mboko and Jovic carried their momentum from the second set into the third, taking a 4-1 lead in the final set.
In her meteoric rise, Victoria Mboko is playing beyond her years
However, Mertens and Zhang stormed back to tie, with both sides going back and forth until it reached the tiebreaker.
Mboko and Jovic worked themselves into a 10-9 edge in the tiebreaker before surrendering the final three points to lose.
Mboko and Jovic broke on six of 11 chances in the two-hour 36-minute match, while the fourth-seeded Mertens and Zhang broke on six of 15 opportunities.