Montreal, Aug 8 (IANS) An 18-year-old Canadian wild card Victoria Mboko stunned four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to win her first WTA 1000 title on home soil at the Canadian Open.
After dropping the first set in the championship match, Mboko once again showed her resilience and fighting spirit, breaking in the opening game of the second set which seemed to throw Osaka off her game even though she managed to break back twice during the frame.
Mboko carried her momentum into the final set, cruising to victory against a discouraged opponent to achieve a destiny that seemed written in the stars from the moment she stepped foot in Montreal.
The victory moves Mboko to a career-high no. 25 on the WTA rankings, guaranteeing that she will be seeded for the first at a Grand Slam in New York later this month. Since 1970, Mboko is the second Canadian semifinalist, finalist, and champion, at the Canadian Open after Bianca Andreescu in 2019.
Coming into the tournament, Mboko was ranked 85th in the world. Her victory makes her the second-lowest ranked player to win a Tier I / WTA 1000 title since the format’s introduction in 1990.
She is the second player since 2009 to claim her maiden title at a WTA 1000 event. Mboko is the second wildcard to win the National Bank Open after Monica Seles in 1995.
Her fortnight included four victories over Grand Slam champions — Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina and Osaka. Gauff and Rybakina were seeded No. 1 and No. 3. It’s the first time that’s happened in a single tournament since Ons Jabeur and Elina Svitolina in Wimbledon 2023 — but they weren’t teenagers. Mboko is the second-youngest player ever to defeat four Grand Slam champions in a single WTA event in the Open Era. The first was Serena Williams in 1999.
The 18-year-old is the first Canadian woman to face four former Women’s Singles Grand Slam champions and the first to beat all four in a single WTA event in the Open Era.
–IANS
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