Victoria Mboko has gone crashing out of Queen’s after suffering a brutal injury during her opener against Karolina Pliskova.
Third seed Mboko was losing 2-6, 4-3 when she experienced a nasty fall at the grass-court event, forcing her to retire from the second round match.
The knee injury arrived just before she was scheduled to continue her Queen’s doubles partnership with WTA legend Serena Williams, which has now been cut short.
Meanwhile, former world number one Pliskova has advanced to the quarterfinals of the WTA 500 tournament in London.
Before that, however, she has kindly offered advice to Mboko, having experienced many significant injuries throughout her successful career.
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Victoria Mboko receives advice from Karolina Pliskova after Queen’s injury
Pliskova said shortly after the match at Andy Murray Arena: “Yeah it was a bad situation, because I was in this pretty much similar situation this year already, also with my knee, and especially two years ago with my ankle.
“So I felt really bad for her, because I mean obviously you still don’t know what is it, but if she felt something that it moved in the knee, then I think you know something for sure happened.
“But yeah, I think there is not much you can do, you can just see all the doctors and see the possibilities which you have.
“And then be patient, that’s going to be the key for her.
“Obviously she’s young, so it’s a different situation than me.
“So she’s going to have many more years, even if she’s a couple of weeks or months out, she has many years in front of her.
“So yeah, to make good decisions I think will be the key now.”
It is certainly a real shame for the 19-year-old superstar, who will hopefully make a full recovery as soon as possible.
Karolina Pliskova praises Victoria Mboko after their Queen’s match
Pliskova’s great advice was accompanied by a promising assessment of Mboko, who is clearly heading for a bright future in the sport.
The teenager is already ranked ninth in the world, and claimed one of her two titles at the WTA 1000 Montreal.
Pliskova said of the youngster: “I think she’s going to be great, obviously she’s already great, a top 10 player.
“But I think she has a big shot, great backhand, great serve, of course.
“I felt like she wasn’t serving that great in the first set, so that’s why I had a lot of chances on her serve.
“But then in the second set, I think she didn’t hit any second serve, so everything went just through first serve, which is a big difference, especially on grass.
“And yeah, she’s hitting pretty big, moving pretty well.
“I think grass maybe is not the best surface for her, but I saw her playing on clay and hard courts this year, and she was playing fantastic.
“So, yeah, she has a big game.”
Pliskova, who is currently ranked 106th in the world, now meets Donna Vekic or fellow Czech player Marie Bouzkova in the next round.
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