{"id":59691,"date":"2025-08-05T07:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T07:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59691\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T07:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T07:59:09","slug":"victoria-mboko-to-face-elena-rybakina-in-montreal-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59691\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria Mboko to face Elena Rybakina in Montreal semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL — Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko<\/a> advanced to her first career WTA Tour semifinal with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro<\/a> on Monday night at the National Bank Open.<\/p>\n

Two days after ousting No. 1 seed<\/a> Coco Gauff<\/a> in just 62 minutes, there was no letdown for the 18-year-old from Toronto.<\/p>\n

After taking a back-and-forth — and error-filled — first set, Mboko was broken in a sluggish start to the second set but broke back in the fourth and sixth games to take a 4-2 advantage.<\/p>\n

Mboko is the first Canadian to reach the WTA 1000 event’s semifinals since Bianca Andreescu<\/a>‘s title run in 2019. She’s also the youngest woman to reach the semis since Belinda Bencic<\/a>‘s 2015 win in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

Mboko will face Elena Rybakina<\/a>, who led Marta Kostyuk<\/a> 6-1, 2-1 when the Ukrainian was forced to stop playing because of an apparent arm injury.<\/p>\n

Rybakina, the No. 9 seed from Kazakhstan, converted three of her 10 break-point chances in the quarterfinal matchup at IGA Stadium. The players shook hands at the 54-minute mark before the 24th-seeded Kostyuk exited the court in tears.<\/p>\n

After the third game, Kostyu’s trainers wrapped her forearm in medical tape.<\/p>\n

In a breakthrough year, Mboko has surged from outside the top 300 to a career-high No. 85. That number is projected to climb to at least No. 55, according to WTA live rankings.<\/p>\n

After two injury-plagued years, Mboko — who had shown promise as a junior — opened the season with a 22-match win streak and captured five titles on the lower-tier ITF Tour.<\/p>\n

She then qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw at the French Open, reaching the third round, before stunning 25th-seeded Magdalena Frech<\/a> in the first round at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

And the upsets keep coming.<\/p>\n

In Montreal, Mboko has rattled off wins over 79th-ranked Kimberly Birrell<\/a>, No. 23 seed Sofia Kenin<\/a>, 39th-ranked Marie Bouzkova<\/a> and Gauff, who is ranked No. 2.<\/p>\n

Her latest victory boosted her record to 25-8 against higher-ranked players and 51-9 in all competitions.<\/p>\n

In the other quarterfinals Tuesday, No. 6 seed Madison Keys<\/a> — the highest-seeded player remaining — faces No. 16 Clara Tauson<\/a>, and former No. 1-ranked Naomi Osaka<\/a> meets No. 10 seed Elina Svitolina<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The tournament final is Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL — Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko advanced to her first career WTA Tour semifinal with a 6-4, 6-2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-59691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}