Victoria Mboko will take centre court once again in tonight’s National Bank Open final.
The Canadian tennis sensation faces four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the WTA 1000 tournament’s title game at IGA Stadium after rallying for a thrilling comeback in last night’s semifinal.
Mboko saved a match point, battled from one set down and fought through a wrist injury to win a 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) over ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in an epic semifinal clash.
The 18-year-old rising star from Toronto became the fourth Canadian woman to reach a final at the Canadian Open, and the latest since Bianca Andreescu’s title run in 2019.
Mboko will move up to at least 34th in the world rankings after beginning the year outside the top 300.
Her success in Montreal has come at the expense of higher-ranked players. She beat 79th-ranked Kimberly Birrell, No. 23 seed Sofia Kenin, 39th-ranked Marie Bouzkova and top-seeded Coco Gauff in a match that only lasted 62 minutes.
Then she bounced Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-2 in Monday’s quarterfinals, setting the stage for her nail-biter against Rybakina.
Osaka, meanwhile, won 6-2, 7-6 (7) over 16th-seeded Clara Tauson of Denmark in the second semifinal.
The former world No. 1 continued her best performance in a WTA 1000 tournament since reaching the Miami final in 2022. She stepped away for 15 months toward the end of that season and had daughter Shai in July 2023.
Osaka is seeking her eighth title and her first since the 2021 Australian Open.