Canadian teen sensation Victoria Mboko advances to NBO semifinals in Montreal

The Atlantic reporter Lukas Weese discusses 18-year-old Victoria Mboko advancing to the semi-finals at the National Bank Open.

MONTREAL — Two days after ousting top seed Coco Gauff in 62 minutes, there was no letdown for Victoria Mboko — even if she needed to dig a little deeper to keep her dream run alive.

The Canadian teenage sensation booked her place in the National Bank Open semifinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro on Monday night.

The first set, despite her win, was messy and filled with errors for both players. The second got off to what Mboko called a “slow, rocky start,” with the 18-year-old from Toronto down 2-0 and a break early.

Then the momentum shifted. The rising star who rarely seems to lose finished strong, winning six straight games to close out the match.

“I was a fighter in that situation,” Mboko said. “That moment was just pure fight-or-flight instincts.

“I really wanted to do the best I could to break her back, and I did everything in my power to stay in there and match her, match what she was producing.”

Mission accomplished. She broke back in the fourth, sixth and eighth games while holding serve throughout.

Bouzas Maneiro’s backhand sailed long on match point, and Mboko dropped her arms and smiled in disbelief after 77 minutes on centre court at IGA Stadium. Then she ran to her handshake and blew kisses to the crowd while it celebrated with a standing ovation.

“So excited to be in a semifinal here, I want to thank everyone for your support once again,” Mboko, who trained in Montreal as a junior, told the crowd. “It’s been an unreal experience and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

Mboko is the first Canadian to reach the WTA 1000 event’s semifinals since Bianca Andreescu’s title run in 2019 — and the first to do so in Montreal in the Open Era. She’s also the youngest woman to reach the semis since Belinda Bencic’s 2015 win in Toronto.

And there’s more: Monica Seles (1995) and Simona Halep (2015) are the only other women to make the final four after entering the tournament as a wild card.

It’s been a breakthrough year for Mboko, who has surged from outside the top 300 to No. 85 in the world rankings. That number is projected to climb to at least No. 48 after she boosted her record to 25-8 against higher-ranked players and 51-9 in all competitions.

Mboko hit three aces and won 58.2 per cent of the points while converting five of nine breakpoint chances and saving three of five.

The hometown favourite also won 16 of 20 points on the 51st-ranked Bouzas Maneiro’s second serve.

Beyond the second set turnaround, she also showed resolve in the first. At 2-2, Mboko fell in a 15-40 hole, but ultimately took the prolonged game thanks to five service winners, regularly opening points with 180-kilometre-per-hour strikes.

“I don’t want to say there’s really a secret,” Mboko said of pulling through when her back is against the wall. “Being calm in such stressful situations is key to delivering what you want to do in those tight moments.

“The human reaction is always to tense up and act out, but I think if I project calmness and relaxness, I’m going to also have the same thing in my head … that’s what’s been helping me get through those tough and tight situations.”

As the last Canadian remaining in singles, Mboko has made a name for herself at home, putting her powerful ball-striking on display in her first National Bank Open main draw.

She will meet Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in Wednesday’s semifinals. The ninth-seeded Rybakina — who knocked Mboko out in the round-of-16 at the D.C. Open in July — advanced after Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk was forced to retire with a wrist injury while trailing 6-1, 2-1 earlier Monday night.

The tournament, which runs through Thursday’s final, is wide open after the top-five seeds failed to reach the quarterfinals.

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

She then qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw at the French Open, reaching the third round, before stunning 25th seed Magdalena Frech in the first round at Wimbledon.

And the upsets keep coming.

In Montreal, Mboko has dropped just one set, rattling off wins over 79th-ranked Kimberly Birrell, 23rd seed Sofia Kenin, 39th-ranked Marie Bouzkova and Gauff, the world No. 2.

“I was really happy to have won that day, but at the end of the day, I’m still in the tournament,” Mboko said of her milestone win over Gauff. “It’s not like I went to celebrate or anything. I was still locked in like I normally am in a tournament. You play a tournament because you want to win it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2025

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press