Victoria Mboko Advances to Semifinals in Montreal
The young Canadian tennis player Victoria Mboko has achieved a milestone in her career by advancing to the semifinals of the WTA Tour for the first time. Mboko secured her place with a solid victory over the Spanish player Jessica Bouzas Maneiro at the National Bank Open.
After surprising the world number one, Coco Gauff, in the quarterfinals, Mboko maintained her level of play to defeat Bouzas Maneiro with scores of 6-4 and 6-2.
Mboko, 18, demonstrated her talent and determination on the court, overcoming a complicated start in the second set to secure the victory. The Canadian is the first to reach the semi-finals of this WTA 1000 event since Bianca Andreescu won the title in 2019.
In the next round, Mboko will face Elena Rybakina. Rybakina was leading her quarter-final match against Marta Kostyuk when the Ukrainian had to retire due to an arm injury.
Rybakina, seeded number 9 of the tournament, had managed to convert three of her ten break opportunities before Kostyuk was forced to abandon the court.
This year has been very successful for Mboko, who has climbed positions in the world ranking, going from being outside the top 300 to reaching number 85, and is expected to rise to at least number 55 according to the live WTA rankings.
After two years marked by injuries, Mboko started the season with a streak of 22 consecutive victories and conquered five titles on the lower-tier ITF circuit.
Furthermore, he qualified for the main draw of his first Grand Slam at the French Open, reaching the third round, and surprised Magdalena Frech in the first round of Wimbledon.
In Montreal, Mboko has achieved victories over Kimberly Birrell, Sofia Kenin, Marie Bouzkova, and Coco Gauff.
Her recent victory raises her record to 25-8 against higher-ranked players and to 51-9 in all competitions.
In other quarterfinal matches, Madison Keys will face Clara Tauson, and Naomi Osaka will face Elina Svitolina. The tournament final is scheduled for Thursday.
