Published: April 25, 2026 at 2:10 pm
American Caty McNally notched one of the biggest victories of her career as she pulled off an upset second-round victory against World No. 10 Victoria Mboko at the Mutua Madrid Open on Friday.
McNally hadn’t won back-to-back main-draw matches on clay in five years. But after 1 hour and 19 minutes on court, she pulled off 6-4, 6-1 upset that moved her through to the third round at the Caja Magica for the first time.
McNally spent eight months on the sidelines in 2024 following wrist surgery, and spent much of last year rebuilding her position in the WTA Rankings to her current perch of No. 76. In that time there were flashes of the form that took her to a previous 2023 singles high mark of No. 54, like when she was the only player to win a set against Iga Swiatek in her title run at Wimbledon last summer, and her doubles prowess quickly restored itself to the tune of a pair of WTA 500 finals in the last eight months.
Flying solo, she put it all together to score far and away her best win by ranking over Mboko, who beat her in straight sets at the Australian Open in January. At that time, the Canadian was not yet a Top 10 player, but in McNally’s eight previous losses to such opponents, she won a set in five.
“I feel like I’ve been knocking on the door for a little while with some of these really great players — winning a set off them but not really being able to string together two sets,” McNally said post-match. “Today, I just stayed so tough and I’m just so proud of that. I played some really solid tennis and it’s such a nice feeling,” she added.
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Mboko, making her tournament debut, was also playing her first match of the clay-court season. She struggled to adapt to both the conditions and McNally’s variety to see a 13-match winning streak against players ranked outside the Top 50 end.
She racked up 47 unforced errors in defeat, double faulted six times, and only created one break point on return as McNally landed 80% of her first serves. Mboko faced 12 break points in all, and McNally won four.
Bidding for a first career Round of 16 at a WTA 1000 event, McNally will next face another player who knows her way around a doubles court in Katerina Siniakova. The Czech rolled over lucky loser Anna Blinkova 6-2, 6-2 earlier on Wednesday following a late withdrawal by No. 17 seed Clara Tauson.
Rybakina to meet Qinwen
The third round will also see the fifth edition of Elena Rybakina’s rivalry with Zheng Qinwen after both players came from a set down, then a break down in the decider, to advance in their tournament openers.
No. 32 seed Zheng defeated Sofia Kenin 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in 1 hour and 53 minutes to move into the third round for just the second time in five appearances, overturning a 2-0 third-set deficit. She was followed on Manolo Santana Stadium by No. 2 seed Rybakina, who trailed Elena-Gabriela Ruse 3-1 in the decider before gritting out a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory in 2 hours and 28 minutes.
The match was a big rollercoaster, honestly, because I didn’t start well the first set,” said Zheng Qinwen. Pics: Tennis Majors
Rybakina leads the head-to-head against Zheng 3-1, including a narrow 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 result in the Doha third round two months ago. Zheng’s only win in the series came in the 2024 WTA Finals Riyadh round-robin stage, which she took 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-1. Sunday’s encounter will be the first time the pair have faced each other on clay.
Neither was satisfied with their second-round performances. “The match was a big rollercoaster, honestly, because I didn’t start well the first set,” said Zheng in her press conference. “This always happens since I come back from the injury, I’m not surprised,” she added.
In Rybakina’s on-court interview, the Australian Open champion admitted that it was “difficult to smile” about her tennis. “Today, I basically survived,” she said. “It wasn’t the greatest performance but Gabriela, she played very well. She was playing very deep and aggressive, so it was very difficult. And also, my serve was not really helping me today. I think I only served the last four games proper serving games, and the rest was struggle. But I’m really happy that I managed to win, and I hope I can bring better tennis next round.”
Ruse managed to take the first set despite a ratio of 15 unforced errors to only two winners — a reflection of how slow off the marks Rybakina was. Last week’s Stuttgart champion was unable to produce her title-winning form, or anything close to it, as she committed 24 unforced errors to only eight winners in the opener.
Mertens eases past Eala
Meanwhile, No. 19 seed Elise Mertens eased past Alexandra Eala in straight sets to advance to the third round. She will next face former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova for a place in the round of 16.
Playing Eala for the second time on the WTA Tour, Mertens opened the match by breaking serve in Eala’s first service game. She added another break in the seventh game and then held serve to take the opening set.
Mertens, a quarterfinalist here in 2021, broke Eala twice to start the second set and added a third break in the seventh game to seal a 6-2, 6-1 victory in 1 hour, 16 minutes. She saved the only break point she faced and converted five of 11 break-point chances.
Alexandra Eala went down to Elise Mertens in straight sets
With the win, Mertens improved to 2-0 in the head-to-head series against the 20-year-old Eala and also improved to 13-7 in singles this season.
On the other hand, Pliskova entered her match against the No. 33 seeded Maria Sakkari with a 4-3 lead in their head-to-head series. She won the first set with the only break of serve in the sixth game.
The Czech player moved ahead by a break for a 4-2 lead in the second set before Sakkari rallied to level it. Eventually, Pliskova edged the tiebreak 8-6 to complete a 6-4, 7-6 (8) win in 1 hour, 31 minutes.
The third-round clash between Pliskova and Mertens will be their eighth career meeting, first since 2023, with the Czech holding a 4-3 edge in their head-to-head series.
Gauff back with a bang
World No. 3 Coco Gauff is back into the third round of Madrid. The 2025 Mutua Madrid Open finalist returned to last 32 with a quick, 82-minute 6-3, 6-0 win against French qualifier Leolia Jeanjean at Arantxa Sanchez Stadium, winning the last nine games. Gauff has now won 11-of-12 career opening matches at WTA 1000 clay tournaments, and improves to 2-0 against Frenchwoman. The two last faced each other in their only previous meeting at the 2022 US Open first round, a routine 6-2, 6-3 win for Gauff.
Gauff will face veteran Sorana Cirstea, who edged out qualifier Tyra Caterina Grant 6-2, 7-6 (5), in the third round. They most recently met in Miami’s fourth round, a Gauff three-set win.
Pegula makes a winning start
Gauff’s compatriot, Jessica Pegula, also made a winning start in Madrid. Pegula, the No. 5 seed this year and the 2022 finalist, improved to 5-0 in second-round matches at the event with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Brit Katie Boulter.
After splitting a pair of three-set matches with Boulter in their first two meetings, Charleston champion Pegula won three straight games early in each set to establish her authority in the pair’s first clay-court tilt. The American needed five set points to pocket the opener, though, and wriggled out of three break points in the eighth game of the second set to stay unbeaten on the dirt so far this spring.
American Jessica Pegula scored a 6-4, 6-4 win over Brit Katie Boulter
She moves on to face No. 26 seed Marta Kostyuk in the third round. Kostyuk won their last meeting earlier in this year in Brisbane, 6-0, 6-3.
Anastasia Potapova arrived at La Caja Mágica Friday not in the main draw. The now-Austrian had lost to compatriot Sinja Kraus in the second round of qualifiers on Tuesday, but elected to sign-in as a lucky loser alternate in case of a sudden withdrawal.
At 10:25 a.m., while practicing, that sudden withdrawal came as Potapova was informed she’d be taking World No. 17’s Madison Keys’ spot in the draw. Though it was the second round, a lucky loser was eligible because Keys had not played a match. Adding to the suddenness, Potapova was the first match at 11:00 a.m., where she ultimately defeated Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-1.
