Elena Rybakina vs Victoria Mboko Tips, Prediction & Live Stream - Rybakina to take down rising star in Washington

It's been a solid year without really being spectacular for Rybakina and she will be hoping to reclaim a spot inside the top 10 before the season comes to a close. The former Wimbledon champion has an excellent chance to do just that after missing the majority of this part of the year in 2024 as she took some time away from the sport.

This would be a confidence-boosting start to her North American hardcourt summer. Mboko is a future star, winning 45 of her 53 matches at all levels in 2025 to surge into the top 100 and she too will be gearing up for a huge summer, heading to her home nation of Canada next week, where she will be under the spotlight. Mboko has taken sets off the likes of Coco Gauff and Paula Badosa already this year and she's capable of doing the same here. However, she lost both of those matches and you'd expect Rybakina's experience and overall class to edge this in the end.

This will be the first career meeting between the pair.

Rybakina comes into this clash with a 31-13 record on the season and has a good chance to build her ranking back into the top 10 over the coming months.

The Kazakh won her only title of 2025 on the clay of Strasbourg before going on to reach the fourth round of Roland Garros, where she led Iga Swiatek 6-1 2-0 before succumbing in three.

It was a relatively disappointing grass swing for Rybakina - a stage of the season she usually enjoys lots of success. Indeed, Rybakina made just the one quarter-final in Berlin and went out in the third round of Wimbledon to Clara Tauson.

Back on hardcourts, Rybakina will be aiming to build on some decent showings earlier in the season, where she made the semi-finals of Dubai and Ahu Dhabi, along with the R16 at the Australian Open and Indian Wells.

It's been an extraordinary rise for Mboko in 2025 - she's compiled a stunning 45-8 record on the season, climbing from No. 284 at the start of the year to a current mark of No. 86.

Mboko collected a handful of ITF titles in the opening months of the year to propel her ranking closer to the top 100, where she then proceeded to try her hand in some bigger WTA events, securing a maiden tour-level victory in Miami before taking a set off Badosa.

The 18-year-old also took a set off Gauff in Rome (making the second round after qualifying) - and after making the final of the WTA125 event in Parma, Mboko also qualified for the French Open, going on to reach the third round before falling to Qinwen Zheng.

Mboko reminded everyone she's still inexperienced at this level after blowing five match points in the final round of Wimbledon qualifying to Priscilla Hon - but she made her way into the main draw as a lucky loser, reaching the second round before going down to Hailey Baptiste.

The Canadian is now back on hardcourts in Washington and registered an impressive opening round victory, taking out Anastasia Potapova 6-2 6-4.