Victoria Mboko’s grass-court season is over before Wimbledon begins. The 19-year-old Canadian, ranked No. 9 in the world, announced on Friday that an injury to the medial collateral ligament in her left knee will keep her out of the rest of the swing, including the Championships at the All England Club.
The injury was sustained on Wednesday at the Queen’s Club, where Mboko slipped and fell at the baseline while trying to break serve in the second set of her round-of-16 match against Karolina Pliskova. Trailing 6-2, 3-4 at the time, she walked gingerly to her chair and retired minutes later. “My fall on Wednesday caused an injury to the MCL on my left knee, which sadly means I will miss the remainder of the grass season,” she wrote on Instagram, adding that Wimbledon was “a tournament I had been so looking forward to playing this year.”
The Serena connection — the setback carries an extra layer of significance, because the fall also ended one of the week’s most talked-about storylines. Mboko had partnered Serena Williams in the doubles draw at Queen’s, a pairing that marked the latest chapter of Williams’ return to competition.
The duo won their opening match on Tuesday, beating third seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7-6(2), 6-2, before Mboko’s injury forced them to pull out ahead of a scheduled quarter-final. “Thank you Serena Williams for giving me this incredible opportunity to play alongside you,” Mboko wrote. “I am so sorry our tournament came to an end prematurely, but I hope we can play together again soon and finish what we started.”
Mboko, who reached a career-high No. 9 earlier this year and came into the grass season off a third-round showing at Roland Garros, said she was receiving medical care and focused on returning to court as soon as possible. Czech player Darja Vidmanová will take the place vacated by Mboko in the Wimbledon main draw, which runs from 29 June to 12 July.
For one of the sport’s fastest-rising young players, it is a frustrating interruption at the worst possible moment in the calendar — and a reminder of how quickly the grass can turn a breakthrough week into a recovery one.
