Victoria Mboko is learning quickly how to handle the most difficult situations on the WTA Tour.
The 18-year-old Canadian performed the greatest feat of her journey through the National Bank Open in Montreal by rallying to defeat No. 9 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4).
Mboko will face resurgent Naomi Osaka, who rallied in the second set tiebreaker to defeat No. 17 Clara Tauson of Denmark, 6-2, 7-6 (7). Osaka will make her first appearance in a WTA 1000 final since the 2022 Miami Open.
Mboko, who defeated top seed Coco Gauff in the fourth round on Saturday, staved off a match point in the third set and broke big-serving Rybakina in the final two games of the set to force a tie-breaker.
Moreover, the Toronto resident suffered a fall early in the third set and called for a medical timeout to tape an ailing wrist. Mboko was broken in the fifth game of the set and the 2022 Wimbledon champion served for the match at 5-4. She had a match point at 40-30, but produced an unforced error and Mboko earned the next two points to knot the set at 5-5.
Rybakina broke to lead 6-5, but Mboko responded, breaking her opponent at love to send the match to a tiebreaker.
The breaker was knotted at 4-4, but Mboko came up with winning forehands on the next two points and a Rybakina error on match point sent the Canadian crowd into a frenzy and Mboko into a state of disbelief.
“I had everyone supporting me and pushing me through,” said Mboko in her on-court interview. “Without you guys, I don’t think I would’ve been able to pull this through.”
Mboko became the first Canadian player to defeat three Grand Slam champions (Rybakina, Gauff, Sofia Kenin) in a WTA event during the open era. She is just the second Canadian in the last 56 years (Bianca Andreescu, 2019) to compete in the finals of her country’s national open.
Osaka, who had to retire and gift Tauson the 2025 Auckland title, won 13 of 15 first serve points in the first set, broke Tauson twice and captured the first set. Osaka got up a break in the second set, but Tauson responded late to force a tiebreaker. Tauson led, 5-2, in the tiebreaker, but the four-time Grand Slam champion rallied to win it 9-7.
The finals are set for Thursday at 6:00 p.m. ET.
–Field Level Media
