Canadian teen Victoria Mboko breezed into the semifinals on home turf, dispatching of Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-2 on Monday at the National Bank Open in Montreal.
Mboko next will face ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who led 6-1, 2-1 when 24th-seeded Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine was forced to retire due to a wrist injury.
Mboko, who knocked off top-seeded Coco Gauff in straight sets in the fourth round, converted two of six break point chances in the first set on Monday. Bouzas Maneiro had a difficult time with her second serve, dropping 5 of 8 points to Mboko.
The 18-year-old from Toronto was extremely efficient in the second set, prevailing on all three of her break-point opportunities. Mboko was broken in the first game of the set and fell behind 2-0 before winning the final six games. The match lasted 1 hour, 17 minutes.
“I’m so excited to be in the semifinal here,” Mboko said in the postmatch on-court interview. “I want to thank everyone for your support once again. It has been unreal.
“I train here (in Canada) and it’s always a great opportunity to be here. My first time playing in Montreal has been an unreal experience and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, broke Kostyuk in the opening game of the match. After the Ukrainian held in the third game, she had her right wrist and foreman heavily taped.
Rybakina won the final four games of the first set. She opened the second set by holding serve and Kostyuk was clearly struggling, using an abbreviated serving motion to lessen the wrist discomfort. She then held serve, as did Rybakina, but Kostyuk then retired, leaving the court in tears after 54 minutes of match time.
Mboko and Rybakina met in the last tournament in Washington, with Rybakina coming away with a 6-3, 7-5 victory in the second round.
Rybakina has one title to her credit in 2025 (Strasbourg, France) and nine in her career.
Mboko began the year ranked No. 333 in the world and entered the tournament in Montreal at No. 85. She will move into the top 50 as of next week.
Mboko becomes the first Canadian player to earn a spot in a WTA 1000 event semifinals since Bianca Andreescu won the championship in 2019. She is also the youngest player to reach the semis since 2015, when Swiss teen Belinda Bencic earned the title.
It has been an excellent few weeks for Canadian tennis, as unseeded Leylah Fernandez won the Citi DC Open in Washington.
–Field Level Media
