Pan Pacific Open Round-Up: Victoria Mboko defeats Bianca Andreescu to win for first time since Montreal, Leylah Fernandez continues to win

It is a very Canadian theme on Day Two of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo with Victoria Mboko taking down Bianca Andreescu, while Leylah Fernandez continues her winning ways.

Mboko stunned the tennis world during the summer winning the Canadian Open after only previously really having success on the ITF circuits. But so did her opponent albeit after also crowning Indian Wells but she went onto win the US Open, that being Andreescu who has had a long and arduous road since her heroics.

But so has Mboko in the short term. She lifted her first WTA 1000 title then could be forgiven for being seen by some as a bit of a flash in the pan as she has failed to register a win since the. She has lost four consecutive first round matches in recent months. Mboko had to remain focused through it all after outside noise dictated that perhaps her title triumph in Montreal wasn't all it seemed.

Back in April, she won two matches at the Billie Jean King Cup on the same court where she faced fellow Canadian, Bianca Andreescu on Tuesday. She picked off right where she left off there crowning a superb 6-3, 6-3 win in just one hour and 15 minutes.

Albeit Andreescu perhaps isn't even Eva Lys who Mboko takes on next. The German has been in heroic form as of late and is rising the ranking at a rate of knots. Becoming a popular name on the WTA Tour, Lys had to come through qualifying and so has games under her belt. Andreescu only just returned recently and hasn't found wins that easy to come by but a confidence boost is a confidence boost after all.

“Playing here kind of made me think back to April,” Mboko said after the match. “I had a really great week and had a lot of fun playing on this court. When I was walking back out (today), I had the same feeling. It brought me some nostalgia, and I felt really happy to be here. To play on center court is always really nice.”

She landed 70% of her first serves and won 77% of those points maintaining control of the match. Andreescu broke once but it wasn't enough to mount any resistance following that. She finished with more winners than unforced errors with 20 to 18 and outperformed Andreescu never trailing in the contest.

Against Lys she has never lost to her. She won 6-4, 6-4 at Roland Garros earlier this year. But Lys reached the China Open Quarter-Finals since then earlier this month and has been performing outstandingly. As has Leylah Fernandez who won a title last week and continues to dazzle.

She eased past Maria Sakkari after a tough opening set winning it 7-6, 6-4. She now faces Elena Rybakina in the next round.

“Any match against Maria is going to be tough,” Fernandez said after the match. “She fights so, so hard, and she’s super aggressive. So, I’m just glad I was able to stay positive, at least for the most part, and of course, the cheers from the crowd really helped me, so arigato for cheering me on.”

Also through include Diana Shnaider who also had a good week last time out amid struggling to replicate her amazing 2024 season. She was great though this time last year too and many have said it is due to the fact that the bigger names aren't performing. Take of that what you will but she saw off Dayana Yastremska 6-3, 6-1 to reach the next round. Wins also for Jaqueline Cristian 6-2, 6-3 over Charaeva. While Wakana Sonobe knocked off rising Czech star Nikola Bartunkova.