Rising Canadian Muboko Lights Up Tokyo as Sinner Fights to Stay in the No.1 Race in Vienna

Muboko’s Tokyo Masterclass

Canadian rising star Victoria Muboko needed less than an hour on Wednesday to topple Germany’s Eva Lys 6-1, 6-1 in the Tokyo 500 event’s second round, advancing to her second career quarterfinal.

At 19, Muboko showed the kind of aggression and simplicity she has preached, playing freely and staying relentlessly positive on the court.

After the match, she told the WTA site she simply wanted to be herself, attack, and keep her energy high. “I wanted to play with freedom and be very positive with myself on court,” she said. “I think I achieved that today.”

She broke Lys in the opening game and never looked back, sealing the first set in 25 minutes and repeating the performance in the second. The numbers backed up the impression of dominance: she faced just one break point all match, and Lys never threatened her serve.

Numbers that underscore the dominance

Key stats from Muboko’s win include: one break point faced all match, her second win of the season over Lys, and a growing tally of decisive sets for 2025. Muboko has accumulated several dominant results in sets of 6-1 or 6-0, and she dropped only eight points on serve, half of them in the late stages.

She finished the match with 10 errors and 12 winners, a ratio that reflected efficiency rather than risk. More broadly, she has won 43 matches in straight sets in 2025 across all levels, highlighting a year of clear control for the young Canadian.

Time of match was 53 minutes, a brisk outing that left her next opponent facing a familiar pattern of pace and precision.

Looking ahead: a Canadian clash possible

Muboko now awaits the winner of the Fernandez-Rybakina clash for a place in the last eight. She has faced Rybakina this year and split results in their meetings, most notably winning a Toronto semifinal before claiming the Montreal title in the following week. Fernandez has never faced Muboko in her career.

Rivalry in the men’s draw: Alcaraz vs Sinner

In the men’s competition, Carlos Alcaraz remains the live front-runner to finish the season as world No.1, but Yannick Sinner is keeping a realistic bid alive with a strong Vienna showing, which offers 500 points.

With Vienna up next, Sinner can cut the gap to 2,040 points if he takes the title there, putting pressure on the Spaniard ahead of Paris. A early exit by Sinner would preserve a 2,540-point gap regardless of how Paris and Turin unfold, given remaining points.

After Vienna, both stars head to Paris Master 1000 and then the Nitto finals for a final push at end-of-year glory, with a potential combined haul of up to 1,500 points for the winner of those events.

For Sinner to reclaim No.1 by year-end, he must seize every point in Vienna, Paris, and Turin while hoping for a stumble from Alcaraz, who has gone 67-7 this year.

Both players chase the year-end No.1 crown for a second time, with Alcaraz having first done so in 2022 and Sinner last year.

Punchline 1: If tennis were a sniper’s playground, Muboko just shaded Lys with a perfectly aimed crosscourt—quiet on the surface, lethal at the angle.

Punchline 2: And if there’s a plot twist in Vienna, it’s this: Sinner might chase the throne, but Alcaraz’s serve has more entrances than a well-lit nightclub—and the lights aren’t going out anytime soon.