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MELBOURNE, Australia – In her first experience against the No. 1 player in the world, Victoria Mboko made a match of it in the second set but ended up out of the Australian Open in the fourth round.

Still, a great debut performance Down Under.

Here’s our piece for the Canadian Press (written not knowing when and whether Mboko would come in to a post-match press conference. Eventually, she did come in before her doubles).

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Wanted to go toe-to-toe

In her press conference, Mboko said it took a little time to get used to the pace Sabalenka was throwing at her. “I was pretty close in the second set. She was serving really well. It was difficult to return her balls. And she upped her level at the end of the day,” Mboko said.

Mboko learned (and she might already have known this, but she experienced if first hand) that against a player like Sabalenka, she can’t get away with not getting consistent depth on her sots.

“I feel like a lot of matches I’m able to get away with not hitting really a thorough ball. Or, say, if it’s too short she automatically took advantage of it and wasted no time to completely put me on defence,” Mboko said. “I felt usually I’m able to kind of get away with that, but with her it was from the start, the moment my shot quality wasn’t good enough, she was dictating right away. So that’s something I could work on and learn for the next time.”

A binary choice

Mboko essentially said there was no alternative, no secondary game plan if she wasn’t able to dictate the points, boss it, as she would like.

“She’s a very aggressive player. I think she’s known for that. So I guess I wouldn’t say there’s a plan B for me because if I was more defensive and tried to put balls on the court, I don’t think that was also an option because she likes to step in and take control,” Mboko said. “So I think the best shot for me was to try to restrict her from opening the court as much as I possibly could.

“But then again, she can create openings out of really difficult shots. So I mean, that’s really great tennis from her,” Mboko added. “Yeah, I think just trying to stay toe-to-toe with her in rallies and try to push her back as much as possible, was kind of my goal.”

Easier said than done, especially the way Sabalenka played for most of the match.

A few sun issues, a few Mboko issues

“Don’t get me wrong I like to play the first match. But the tricky part, at some point the sun goes right into your serve point. It’s kind of, like, tricky. That’s what actually happened. Two breaks that she got, it was on the side when I was facing the sun,” Sabalenka said. “I didn’t deal that good with the serve. She did an incredible job serving on that side.

“I knew she’s going to be fighting. I knew she’s going to be trying. She kind of like has nothing to lose. She showed incredible tennis in those moments when she broke my serve,” Sabalenka added.

Sabalenka now gets Mboko’s fellow teen and doubles partner, Iva Jovic, in the quarterfinals.

If you want to talk about the fairness of the draw gods: Mboko got the world No. 1. Jovic got … Yulia Putintseva and spent only 53 minutes on court.