Young star Victoria Mboko was beaten 6-4 7-5 by Karolina Muchova in the Qatar Open final.
The victory is a first ever WTA 1000 title and her first since 2019, ending a seven-year drought for the 14th seed and former French Open finalist.
Czech Muchova came through with the victory in one hour and 34 minutes in Doha as she picked up the second title of her career.
On the way to the final, Mboko stunned Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina in the quarter-finals and she blasted past Latvian Ostapenko in 74 minutes to reach her second WTA 1000 final, following on from her dream run to the National Bank Open title in Montreal last August.
Meanwhile, Muchova had defeated Maria Sakkari 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the other semi-final.
This time last year, Mboko was ranked No 211 and on the way to collecting her fourth ITF title of 2025 at the Manchester W35.
She had played just one WTA main draw in her career, and had yet to win a match at that level.
More to follow…
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
