Two days after ousting top seed Coco Gauff in 62 minutes, there was no letdown for Victoria Mboko — even when she needed to dig somewhat deeper to maintain her dream run alive.
The Canadian teenage sensation booked her place within the National Bank Open semifinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro on Monday night.
The primary set, despite her win, was messy and crammed with errors for each 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.
The gang cheers for Victoria Mboko of Canada during her game against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain during quarterfinal tennis motion on the National Bank Open in Montreal, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
Then the momentum shifted. The rising star who rarely seems to lose finished strong, winning six straight games to shut out the match.
“I used to be a fighter in that situation,” Mboko said. “That moment was just pure fight-or-flight instincts.
“I actually desired to do the very best I could to interrupt her back, and I did every little thing in my power to remain in there and match her, match what she was producing.”
Mission achieved. She broke back within 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 gang while it celebrated with a standing ovation.
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“So excited to be in a semifinal here, I would like to thank everyone in your support once more,” Mboko, who trained in Montreal as a junior, told the gang. “It’s been an unreal experience and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Mboko is the primary Canadian to achieve the WTA 1000 event’s semifinals since Bianca Andreescu’s title run in 2019 — and the primary to accomplish that in Montreal within the Open Era. She’s also the youngest woman to achieve the semis since Belinda Bencic’s 2015 win in Toronto.
And there’s more: Monica Seles (1995) and Simona Halep (2015) are the one other women to make the ultimate 4 after entering the tournament as a wild card.
It’s been a breakthrough yr for Mboko, who has surged from outside the highest 300 to No. 85 on the earth rankings. That number is projected to climb to at the 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 probabilities and saving three of 5.
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 primary. At 2-2, Mboko fell in a 15-40 hole, but ultimately took the prolonged game due to five service winners, often opening points with 180-kilometre-per-hour strikes.
“I don’t wish 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 essential to delivering what you must do in those tight moments.
“The human response is all the time to tense up and act out, but I believe if I project calmness and relaxness, I’m going to even have the identical thing in my head … that’s what’s been helping me get through those tough and tight situations.”
Because the last Canadian remaining in singles, Mboko has made a reputation for herself at home, putting her powerful ball-striking on display in her first National Bank Open fundamental draw.
She’s going to meet Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in Wednesday’s semifinals. The ninth-seeded Rybakina — who knocked Mboko out within the round-of-16 on 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 achieve 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 fundamental draw on the French Open, reaching the third round, before stunning twenty fifth seed Magdalena Frech in the primary round at Wimbledon.
And the upsets keep coming.
In Montreal, Mboko has dropped only one set, rattling off wins over 79th-ranked Kimberly Birrell, twenty third seed Sofia Kenin, Thirty ninth-ranked Marie Bouzkova and Gauff, the world No. 2.
“I used to be really completely happy to have won that day, but at the top of the day, I’m still within the tournament,” Mboko said of her milestone win over Gauff. “It’s not like I went to have a good time or anything. I used to be still locked in like I normally am in a tournament. You play a tournament because you must win it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2025.
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