Defending champion Victoria Mboko pulls out of Canadian Open due to knee injury

[p]The ‌19-year-old Canadian has not played ‌a competitive match since slipping ‌awkwardly while facing [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/pliskova-karolina/xGn9KNfO/"]Karolina Pliskova[/a] at the Queen's Club ‌Championships in June.[/p][p]After scans on ⁠her ‌left knee, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mboko-victoria/AqVez8TJ/"]Mboko[/a] pulled out of ​her doubles quarter-final alongside 23-times Grand Slam champion [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/williams-serena/ttsu68nH/"]Serena ​Williams[/a] and said she had injured the medial collateral ⁠ligament.[/p][p]The injury ​forced Mboko to withdraw from the rest of the grass-court season, including Wimbledon.[/p][embed guid="04770658-0e08-44ab-b63a-c155a61d36e0" url="https://x.com/NBOtoronto/status/2074570652195983447" social-type="twitter" /][p]Mboko said ‌on Tuesday that the US Open tune-up event in Toronto meant "everything to her".[/p][p]"[b]Not being able to play at home this summer in front of the people I love and with the support of ‌the Toronto crowd is ​deeply disappointing as it has ‌been something I’ve been looking so much forward to[/b]," she said.[/p][p]The Canadian Open runs from August 2nd to 13th in ⁠Toronto.[/p]