Oh, Canada! Mboko's magical run continues into Montreal final

Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko's ride in Montreal will continue into the Omnium Banque Nationale championship match after another headline-grabbing victory.

Montreal: Draws | Scores | Order of play

On Wednesday night, the 18-year-old wild card saved a match point in dispatching No. 9 seed Elena Rybakina in the semifinals -- putting her through to her first Hologic WTA Tour singles final 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(4).

Mboko's staggering comeback -- in which she trailed 4-2, 5-3 and 6-5 with Rybakina serving in the third set -- earned her several milestones.

In addition to breaking new ground in just her seventh tour-level main draw, Mboko became:

• The first Canadian player to defeat three former Grand Slam champions (Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Sofia Kenin) in a single WTA event in the Open Era 
• The fourth Canadian finalist at her country's signature event in the Open Era after Faye Urban (1968 and 1969), Vicky Berner (1969) and Bianca Andreescu (2019)
• The youngest of those, and the first to do it in Montreal
• The second player in the Open Era to reach her first WTA level final at the Canadian Open after Lina Krasnoroutskaya in 2003
• The third player to reach her maiden WTA final in a WTA-1000 event since the format’s introduction in 2009 after Caroline Dolehide (Guadalajara 2023) and Anna Kalinskaya (Dubai 2024)
• The third wild card to reach the final at the Canadian Open in the Open Era after Monica Seles (1995) and Simona Halep (2015)

In the final, Mboko will face four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who advanced to her first WTA 1000-level final since 2022 with a 6-2, 7-6(7) win over No. 16 seed Clara Tauson in the nightcap. Osaka saved two set points in the second set at 6-4 in the tiebreak after losing leads of 3-1 and 4-2 earlier in the set.

After being blitzed in the first set -- where she lost all three of her service games, and scuffled on return even though Rybakina only landed 41% of first serves -- the teenager worked her way back into the match, and gave a partisan crowd at IGA Stadium something to cheer for. 

After losing leads of 3-0 and 5-3 in the second set, Mboko hustled her way to the last two games and eight of the last 10 points to push the match the distance.

But early in the third set, that hustle almost worked against her: In the first point of the second game, Mboko fell at the back of the court, and landed hard on her wrist. At the ensuing changeover, she took a medical timeout, and continued to play with her wrist taped.

More than an hour later, she credited the jam-packed stadium with pulling her through the tense 2 hour and 46-minute comeback. More than an hour of that was logged in the third set, and Mboko's fellow Canadian's ebbed and flowed with every point she won, with cheers of "Allez, Vicky!" ringing out as they waved cardboard cutouts of her face.

"I had everyone supporting me and pushing me through," the teenager said in her on-court interview. "Without you guys, I don't think I would've been able to pull this through." 

After starting the season ranked outside the Top 300 in the PIF WTA Rankings and entering the tournament ranked No. 85, Mboko is assured of cracking the Top 40 no matter the result of Thursday's final.