Mboko Forced to Withdraw from Wimbledon with Knee Injury

Victoria Mboko’s knee injury, suffered during a round of 16 match with Karolina Pliskova at Queen’s Club, will force her to miss Wimbledon this year. 

The 19-year-old Canadian was having a great start to her second career grass season on tour, playing doubles alongside recently unretired Serena Williams. The pair won their first match in London, but on the next day Mboko was injured in singles against Pliskova. 

On Friday Wimbledon’s entry list showed that Mboko, ranked No.9 in the world in singles, is out, with Czechia’s Darja Vidmanova slipping into the main draw as her replacement.

Mboko provided an update on her Insta, saying:

“I wanted to provide a quick update given everything that has happened in the past 36 hours. Unfortunaly, 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. This unfortunately means Wimbledon too, a tournament I had been so looking forward to playing this year.

“I am receiving the best medical care and my team and I are focused on a return to court as soon as possible. Thank you to everyone who has reached out and sent messages of support, I am so grateful to you all!

“Lastly, thank you Serena Williams for giving me this incredible opportunity to play alongside you. I learnt so much from you and am so sorry our tournament came to an end prematurely, but I hope we can play together again soon and finish what we started.”

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A post shared by Victoria Mboko (@vickymboko)

“You’re an incredible talent and you’ll be back out there in no time,” Williams said on social media after Mboko was injured. “Wishing you a speedy recovery.”