Mboko saves match point, defeats Andreeva for the first time in Doha

The rivalry is on.

The two leading teenagers in the world faced off for the second time this season in the Qatar TotalEnergies Open third round, and this time it was a classic. No. 10 seed Victoria Mboko reversed the result of January's Adelaide final to defeat No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5) in 2 hours and 10 minutes for the first time. Andreeva held one match point at 5-4 in the third set, but squandered it with a double fault.

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The result was 19-year-old Mboko's third career Top 10 win, and she advances to her second career WTA 1000 quarterfinal following her surprise run to last year's Montreal title. She also becomes the second player this year to win from match point down twice, joining Magdalena Frech -- Mboko also saved two match points against Anna Kalinskaya in the Adelaide second round, winning that contest 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(6).

Mboko has now won 13 of her past 14 three-set matches since the final round of Wimbledon qualifying last year, where she missed five match points and fell to Priscilla Hon 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-1. Following that tournament, her only loss in a deciding set has come against Elise Mertens at the United Cup in January. She'll face either No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina or Zheng Qinwen next in Doha.

Here's how a riveting contest played out in each set.

Set one: Mboko stays on the front foot

Tennis-wise, the story of the first set was Mboko's superior aggression. Keeping her point construction simple but effective, she slammed the ball from side to side with both power and consistency. Throughout the opener, the Canadian tallied 15 winners, including five aces, to Andreeva's five.

She also won a significant mental battle to claim the set. In the Adelaide final, Mboko had made a quick start with a 3-0 lead -- only for Andreeva to win 12 of the next 13 games to take the title. Once again, she leapt out to 3-0, but found herself pegged back to 3-3 as Andreeva began mixing up her play.

But this time, Mboko halted her opponent's momentum. At 3-3, she staved off two break points and found two consecutive forehand winners to escape with the crucial hold.

Set two: Andreeva's tactical adjustments

Andreeva had enjoyed limited success by deploying slices and drop shots in the first set, but in the second she began to throw the kitchen sink at Mboko. She saved four break points for an important hold in the opening game, the fourth of those with a drop shot-pass combination. In the very next game, she came up with a brilliant point construction -- two moonballs, followed by a double-handed drop shot from above shoulder height and then a winning lob -- en route to breaking.

Slowing the pace of the rallies and breaking up Mboko's rhythm paid dividends. Boxed in by Andreeva's variety, Mboko's ability to find openings was limited -- and though she was only drawn into 11 unforced errors in the second set, her winner count was reduced to eight. It was still hard-fought to the end -- this time, it was Mboko who levelled at 3-3 before Andreeva pulled away at the end of the set -- but it was the 18-year-old who had dragged the match back on to her terms.

Set three: A nailbiting dénouement

Appropriately, the third set saw the highest level of tennis from both teenagers at the same time. The early stages saw a series of magnificent exchanges as they tried to out-manoeuvre each other, with Andreeva capturing the first break for 2-1 but immediately getting pegged back. Perhaps most impressively, Mboko rose to the challenge of Andreeva's variety, sending it back with creativity of her own and patiently going toe-to-toe in the extended rallies.

"I didn't really have a specific tactic against her," Mboko explained afterwards. "But I know she slices really well, and she hits really low. I think she forced me to hit those [slices and spins]. She covers the court really well, so I think for me it was just trying to find the little window to open the court. Yeah, I just found myself hitting those kinds of shots because that's all I felt I could do."

As the set reached its climax, the tennis became edgier. At 4-4, Mboko coughed up a pair of double faults to concede her serve -- only for Andreeva to repay the favor in the next game, missing a match point with a double fault of her own. But the quality returned in the deciding tiebreak, which saw five points decided by clean winners. The best of those proved decisive: an angled backhand pass on the run by Mboko which gave a her a 5-3 lead, the first time in the tiebreak that one player had a two-point advantage over the other.

Though Mboko's backhand let her down on her first two match points, she continued to trust in that shot -- and closed out her third match point with an inside-out winner from that wing, her 38th of the day.

"I feel like I came out with some very clutch shots at the end," said Mboko. "I think we both were pretty tired when it came to the tiebreak. I think I felt like I was lucky enough to have some good shots in the great moments."