Victoria Mboko says it’s ‘only a matter of time’ after Roland Garros breakthrough

“I’m really happy to face her today, and I’m sure it’s not gonna be the last time,” Zheng added. “I will face her more time in the future. I wish her all the best, as well.”

Read more: Victoria Mboko goes for gold in memorable Roland Garros debut

Mboko, meanwhile, agreed with Zheng’s assessment that she already has the tennis tools to go toe-to-toe with the game’s best players, as evidenced in three matches with Top 10 opponents already this year and her 42-6 record at all levels of pro tennis. Taking the next step will come from off-court intangibles.

Q. You’ve played three top-10 players: Badosa, Coco, now Zheng. Can you compare who hits harder, whose ball is tougher to handle for you? How do you compare the three of them?

VICTORIA MBOKO: Honestly, I think all three of them hit pretty hard (smiling). No, but all three of them also have a very unique game.

Qinwen today, she has really heavy and hard balls, yeah, shots on her ball. I mean, I think I was struggling a lot with that. Especially on the clay, her ball is really effective.

Coco, she is very athletic. She moves very well. She’s on every single ball. She still hits powerful shots.

Maybe with Paula, she hits also an incredibly hard ball.

I played all three of them on different surfaces, so it’s kind of hard to compare. Yeah, it’s obviously a really difficult level to play against them. But I’m glad to have experienced that overall against them.