ROME - Canada’s Victoria Mboko qualified for the Italian Open main draw Tuesday with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 comeback win over ninth-seeded Kamilla Rakhimova. The 18-year-old from Toronto fired six aces, won 70 per cent of her first-serve points and broke Rakhimova six times. Mboko took control after the first set, winning 12 of the final 14 games to finish the match in just over two hours. She’ll make just her second appearance in a WTA 1000 main draw, having reached the second round in Miami in March. Mboko, ranked 158th in the world, has compiled a 32-3 record this season while racking up five titles on the lower-tier ITF circuit. She’ll find out her first-round opponent in Rome once the draw is completed. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2026.