WTA Adelaide: Mboko Eliminates Defending Champion Keys, Andreyeva to Face Schneider

On January 15th Beijing time, the 2026 WTA500 Adelaide tournament featured the women's singles quarterfinals. In a highlight match, the 8th seed and last year's WTA Best Newcomer Mboko triumphed in a tough three-set battle, defeating defending champion Keys 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to powerfully advance to the semifinals.

Photo of Mboko

Keys had started last year with a 16-match winning streak from Adelaide and captured her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open; meanwhile, Mboko had claimed a dominant victory at the WTA1000 Montreal event held in her hometown. In this match, Mboko applied significant pressure on Keys' serve, creating 12 break point opportunities and converting 6 of them. After splitting the first two sets, Mboko surged ahead with a five-game winning streak in the final set, securing the win by holding serve in the match point game to topple the defending champion.

In the semifinals, Mboko will face local wildcard Biller, who battled for 3 hours and 4 minutes in the quarterfinals, narrowly overturning Romanian player Cristian 5-7, 6-1, 7-5. The 3rd seed Andreyeva cruised past Jonte 6-2, 6-0, while 9th seed Schneider defeated 6th seed Navarro 6-3, 6-3; these two will compete for the other spot in the final.

In women's doubles, the 2nd seeds Zhang Shuai and Siniakova edged out the 4th seeds Danilina and Krunic 6-4, 2-6, 10-8. They will face L. Kichenok and Kravchuk in the final, who eliminated Perez and Stuurs 6-2, 3-6, 10-7.

(Text and editing by Dato; photos by Visual China)