Victoria Mboko won the all-Canadian matchup at the Hong Kong Open early Saturday morning, rallying to defeat Leylah Annie Fernandez 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach her second final of the season.
The new Canadian women’s No. 1 continues her breakthrough season and will face Cristina Bucsa in the final.
Comebacks have been a hallmark of Mboko’s tournament, as she has won three of her four matches from one set down, including rallying from a 4-1 deficit in her second-round match against Alexandra Eala.
"I didn't really have the best start. She was playing really great, aggressive tennis, which made it hard for me to find my rhythm,” Mboko said after the match. "I just wanted to stay in there as much as I could with her and find a way. It slowly got me a lot more confidence in my game, and [by the end] I was more brave and able to go for my shots."
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Fernandez opened the match with a dominant showing in the first, firing 10 winners and breaking Mboko twice as she took the set 6-2. Mboko fired 14 unforced errors in the set compared to just five winners.
Things quickly turned in the second set. With Fernandez up 2-1, the former US Open finalist took a medical timeout to tend to an apparent injury to her right thigh. When play resumed, all momentum had shifted to Mboko, as the 19-year-old was able to find her serve.
Mboko landed 64 per cent of her first serves in the opening set, and Fernandez was able to take full advantage. That percentage jumped to 81 per cent in the second and 91 per cent in the third, as she took full control and was not broken for the remainder of the match.
She would only get stronger as the match went on, and broke Fernandez twice in the final set, including on match point, to advance to the final.
Mboko had struggled coming off her spectacular win at the National Bank Open in Montreal, as she dropped her first match at each of her next four tournaments while dealing with a wrist injury.
By reaching the final in Hong Kong, Mboko is guaranteed to make her top-20 debut next week after starting the season at No. 333.
Read also: Through the Years: Victoria Mboko’s Surge to Becoming Canada’s No. 1
Auger-Aliassime Advances to Paris Final with Win over Bublik
Felix Auger-Aliassime will play for his fourth title of the season after he defeated Alexander Bublik 7-6(3), 6-4 on Saturday to advance to the final at the Paris Masters.
It will be the second-career 1000-level final for Auger-Aliassime and the first since reaching the final in Madrid last year.
On Sunday, the Canadian will face off against world number two Jannik Sinner. Auger-Aliassime, who will be attempting to win his first Masters 1000 title, has two wins and two losses against the Italian, but Sinner has won both of their matches this year, including in the quarterfinals of the US Open.
The Montreal native already has titles in Adelaide, Montpellier, and Brussels this season.
With the win, the 25-year-old moved into the eighth and final spot in the race for the ATP Finals, leapfrogging Lorenzo Musetti.
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Both men were excellent on serve in the first set, as neither was able to earn a break and take control . Neither player needed to face a single break point in the 51-minute first set.
The back-and-forth set would continue all the way into a tiebreaker, when the Canadian finally seized control by taking two points on Bublik’s serve to capture the opening set 7-6 (3), moving one set away from the final.
Auger-Aliassime blinked first in the second set, opening the door for Bublik to mount a comeback. After Bublik held serve to open, Auger-Aliassime struggled on his serve, double-faulting once and committing an unforced error as he was broken at love to go down 2-0.
Auger-Aliassime would immediately respond with a break of his own, causing a frustrated Bublik to smash his racquet to pieces. Unfortunately for the Montreal native, he was unable to maintain the momentum, as he allowed Bublik to once again break him on the next game to go down 3-1.
Bublik went up 4-1 and appeared to be in full control and well on his way to forcing a third set before Auger-Aliassime found the form he flashed in the first set. The Canadian would rally and win four straight games, breaking Bublik for the second and third times in the match.
This time, Auger-Aliassime would not allow Bublik back into the match, closing out the match with a strong service game to advance to the final.
Photo Credit: Martin Sidorjak
