Canada's Andreescu, Branstine, Mboko advance in Wimbledon qualifying

A successful grass-court season for Canadians continued on Tuesday.

Bianca Andreescu, Carson Branstine and Victoria Mboko advanced through the first round of Wimbledon qualifying.

Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, made quick work of Brazil's Laura Pigossi in a 6-2, 6-1 rout in which she converted five break points.

Branstine, meanwhile, upset top-seeded Lois Boisson of France, who recently took a Cinderella run to the semifinals at Roland-Garros.

The 24-year-old Canadian earned a 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-4 victory while firing six aces.

Boisson became an overnight sensation in her native France after a stunning run to the semifinals of the clay-court French Open. The 22-year-old saw her ranking skyrocket 296 places to No. 65.

But she was not offered a wild-card into the Wimbledon main draw, and her bid to appear in a second straight Grand Slam ended early.

Branstine opened her grass-court season with her first career WTA Tour-level main draw win earlier this month at the Libema Open at 's-Hertogenbosh, Netherlands.

Andreescu and Branstine will now meet in the second round, with the winner one match away from playing in the third Grand Slam of the season.

The two Canadians recently re-established a doubles partnership after teaming up to win the girls' doubles title at the 2017 Australian Open.

Meanwhile, Victoria Mboko bounced back after dropping the first set of her qualification tournament to join Andreescu and Branstine in the second round.

Mboko beat Japan's Nao Hibino 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2, surviving a match in which she converted only four of 17 break-point opportunities while Hibino was successful on four of six.

The 18-year-old improved her record this year to 43-6, with most of those wins coming on the lower-tier ITF World Tennis Tour circuit.

She made her Grand Slam debut at the French Open, where she advanced to the third round after qualifying for the main draw.

The Toronto native will next face Switzerland's Valentina Ryser.

Fellow Canadians Liam Draxl, Kayla Cross and Rebecca Marino were eliminated from Wimbledon contention following first-round losses.

Rebecca Marino was set to play her first-round match later Tuesday.

On the men's side, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., moved on after a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win over American Murphy Cassone on Monday.

The main draw at Wimbledon begins Monday. Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov, Gabriel Diallo and Leylah Fernandez have already booked their spots.

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