Carson Branstine upset top seed Lois Boisson on Tuesday as several Canadians moved to the second round of the Wimbledon women’s qualifying tournament.
Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., also won her first-round qualifying match against Brazil’s Laura Pigossi and will next face Branstine on Wednesday. The two Canadians recently re-established a doubles partnership after teaming up to win the girls’ doubles title at the 2017 Australian Open.
Rising star Victoria Mboko of Toronto was also a winner Tuesday while ninth-seed Rebecca Marino of Vancouver and Kayla Cross of London, Ont., lost their first-round matches.
Branstine, from California but representing Canada on the world stage, won 81 per cent of her first-serve points and broke Boisson five times on eight chances in a 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-4 victory.
Boisson became an overnight sensation in her native France after a stunning run to the semifinals of the clay-court French Open. The 22-year-old saw her ranking skyrocket 296 places to No. 65.
But she was not offered a wild-card into the Wimbledon main draw, and her bid to appear in a second straight Grand Slam ended early.
Branstine opened her grass-court season with her first career WTA Tour-level main draw win earlier this month at the Libema Open at ‘s-Hertogenbosh, Netherlands.
Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion and a former world No. 4, faced little opposition in her match Tuesday, cruising to a 6-2, 6-1 victory.
Andreescu overcame 20 unforced errors by breaking Pigossi five times on 10 chances while defending the only two break points she faced.
Mboko, seeded sixth in qualifying, came back from a set down to post a 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2 win over Japanese veteran Nao Hibino.
The 18-year-old improved her record this year to 43-6, with most of those wins coming on the lower-tier ITF World Tennis Tour circuit.
She made her Grand Slam debut at the French Open, where she advanced to the third round after qualifying for the main draw.
Cross couldn’t build on a strong opening set against Romanian veteran Patricia Tig in a 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 loss. The 20-year-old Cross also lost to Tig in the first round of French Open qualifying.
Marino fell 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to Gabriela Knutson of the Czech Republic. The Canadian fired 10 aces, but also had 11 double-faults.
The 34-year-old was looking for the fourth Wimbledon main-draw appearance of her career.
Diallo advances to Mallorca quarterfinals
Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo continued his successful grass-court season with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Serbia’s Laslo Djere in second-round action Tuesday at the Mallorca Championship.
Diallo scored his second break of the match to go up 5-3 in the third set, then set up match point with back-to-back aces before wrapping up the win in one hour 47 minutes.
The 23-year-old sixth seed won 83 per cent of first-serve points and had 10 aces while saving three of the four break points he faced.
Diallo, who entered the tournament with a career-high No. 41 ranking, is expected to break into the top 40 after this tournament.
He will next face fourth seed Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands. Griekspoor defeated Diallo in the second round of this year’s French Open in the only other match between the players.
Diallo, who picked up his first ATP Tour tournament win earlier in the grass-court season at the Libema Open in the Netherlands, is preparing for his first appearance in the Wimbledon main draw after falling in qualifying at the past two events.
He has played in three straight Grand Slam main draws since losing in the second round of qualifying at the All England Club in 2024.
Later Tuesday, second-seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal faced France’s Arthur Rinderknech.
