Caty McNally recorded the first top-10 victory of her career when she scored a 6-4, 6-1 triumph over No. 10 Victoria Mboko on Friday in the second round of the Madrid Open.
McNally needed just 79 minutes to land her first win in nine attempts against top-10 opponents.
“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 on-court. “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.”
The 24-year-old American feels she is back on track. She missed most of the 2024 season after wrist surgery and struggled to gain traction in 2025.
“I love playing matches like this and seeing where my level is at — I’m proving to myself that I’m there,” McNally said. “(Mboko is) an amazing player and we’ve had some great matches. At one point, I had to take a step back and realize the journey I’ve (been) on to get here. To realize I’m in Madrid, Spain playing on basically a full court — that’s such a privilege.”
Mboko’s struggles also aided McNally. The Canadian had 47 unforced errors and six double faults.
McNally now takes aim at reaching the Round of 16 at a WTA 1000-level event for the first time when she faces Katerina Siniakova on Sunday. The Czech recorded a 6-2, 6-2 win over Russian lucky loser Anna Blinkova, who got the call when No. 17 seed Clara Tauson withdrew Friday due to a shoulder injury.
Madison Keys (illness) also withdrew and was replaced by Austria’s Anastasia Potapova, who registered a 6-3, 6-1 win over China’s Shuai Zhang.
“I didn’t warm up, I didn’t do any practices, so today was the first morning when I went early to the stadium,” Potapova said. “I signed for the early warmup. Literally when I was warming up on (the practice) court, a supervisor came and said that ‘you’re going on at first match.’ It literally happened at 10:25 a.m. (Madrid time).”
No. 2 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan held off Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to advance to the third round. No. 3 Coco Gauff had an easy time, routing Leolia Jeanjean of France 6-3, 6-0.
No. 5 Jessica Pegula was a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Great Britain’s Katie Boulter.
No. 13 Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic defeated Emiliana Arango of Colombia 6-3, 6-2. No. 19 Elise Mertens of Belgium moved on with a 6-2, 6-1 rout of Alexandra Eala of the Philippines.
No. 20 Liudmila Samsonova of Russia cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Janice Tjen of Indonesia, while No. 21 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia posted a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Switzerland’s Simona Waltert. No. 25 Sorana Cirstea of Romania fought out Italy’s Tyra Caterina Grant for a 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory, while No. 26 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine rolled to a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.
Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez outlasted No. 27 Cristina Bucsa of Spain 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-2, and No. 32 Qinwen Zheng of China recovered for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Sofia Kenin.
Czech Karolina Pliskova notched a 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory over No. 33 Maria Sakkari of Greece. Argentina’s Solana Sierra beat No. 34 seeded Magdalena Frech of Poland 6-2, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
