With a win against Victoria Mboko in the quarterfinals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open on Friday, Elena Rybakina isn’t just through to the semifinals at the WTA 500 tournament. She’s also heading to the season-ending WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF.

Tokyo: Scores | Draw | Order of play

Rybakina, after winning the AUX · Ningbo Open last week, controlled her own destiny in Tokyo to earn the eighth and final spot, needing to reach at least the semifinals to pass Mirra Andreeva in the Race to the WTA Finals.

With straight-sets wins over Leylah Fernandez on Wednesday and Mboko on Friday, she did just that. 

Rybakina was a 6-3, 7-6(4) winner against Mboko to officially seal her berth, reversing the result of their last meeting in the Montreal semifinals. There, Mboko saved a match point to win in three sets, and in Tokyo, Rybakina saved a set point on serve trailing 6-4 in the second set to take her revenge.

Rybakina rose to the pressure-packed occasion with a clutch performance, as she out-served and out-hit Mboko off the ground. The World No. 7 won the first three games — all of which were tightly contested. After saving a break point in the opening game, she consolidated her first break of Mboko’s serve by escaping a 30-30 third game. 

Mboko stayed in front for the majority of the second set with her own strong play — and each player erased one break point in the first 12 games. The Canadian erased Rybakina’s opportunity at 3-3, and Rybakina came up with a big serve when it mattered when she was staring down a potential third set at 5-6, 30-40. 

In a high-quality 1 hour and 32 minutes, both players hit more winners than their 11 unforced errors each, but Rybakina’s 23 winners won out against Mboko’s 17.

More to come…