Victoria Mboko’s Cinderella glass slipper will live to see championship night at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers.
The 18-year-old Canadian saved a match point en route to a thrilling 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) victory over world no. 12 Elena Rybakina in Wednesday’s semi-finals.
Mboko faced adversity throughout the night, but her belief and resolve never once wavered. After dropping the first set and giving up a break lead early in the second set, she maintained her composure and kept going for her shots which ultimately resulted in creating an opportunity to level the match which she took full advantage of.
In the final frame, Mboko continued to show maturity beyond her years with her back against the wall. Rybakina twice served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5, but the former Wimbledon champion is the one who ended up flinching so close to the finish line. Mboko saved a match point down 4-5 and broke again at 5-6. In the tiebreak, the young Canadian was the steadiest of the two players on the court, hitting the ball with purpose off both wings and coming up with clutch serves when she needed them most.
“In a tiebreaker every point counts. I really put emphasis on that, especially in that kind of moment where I had that really long point,” Mboko said in her post-match press conference. “I wanted to as much as I can to put as many balls in the court and to fight as hard as I possibly could. So, I wanted to stay really calm as well, because it's an incredibly stressful moment. I feel like I've been in situations where the score was tight, and I kind of panicked a little bit, but I really wanted to calm myself down and forget about the last point and always focus on the next.”
Mboko is the first Canadian woman in the Open Era to reach the NBO final in Montreal. In Thursday’s final, she will look to follow in the footsteps of her compatriot Bianca Andreescu who won the tournament in Toronto in 2019.
“It's been a crazy night for me”, Mboko said in her post-match press conference. “For my first-ever final of a 1000, it's unbelievable to even think about it, and I'm just really happy to be here and just to celebrate it with all the Canadian fans that came to watch.”
Mboko is also the first Canadian to beat three Grand Slam champions in a single WTA event (Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff, and Rybakina). Mboko is the second player in the Open Era to reach her first WTA level final at the NBO after Lina Krasnoroutskaya in 2003.
The NBO singles final will be played at 6 p.m. on Thursday evening. The match can be seen on Sportsnet and TVA Sports.
Feature Photo: Sarah-Jade Champagne
