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Canadian teen Vicky Mboko pulls off huge upset to make NBO final in Montreal

Rob Williams
Rob Williams
|
Aug 7 2025, 12:56 am
Canadian teen Vicky Mboko pulls off huge upset to make NBO final in Montreal
David Kirouac/Imagn Images

Vicky Mboko has done it again.

Four days after knocking off Coco Gauff, the world’s No. 2 ranked women’s player, the 18-year-old Canadian has upset another tennis giant at the National Bank Open in Montreal.

This time, it was No. 12 ranked Elena Rybakina, a former Wimbledon champion, who fell to the rising Toronto teenage tennis star.

Mboko won the marathon semi-final match in three sets (1-6, 7-5, 7-6), much to the delight of the raucous home crowd.

Mboko will play in Thursday’s final at 6 p.m. EDT/3 p.m. PDT on Sportsnet, against the winner of the other semi-final between Naomi Osaka and Clara Tauson.

Mboko showed incredible poise during the match, as she battled through a wrist ailment after she fell awkwardly early in the third set. The Canadian even fended off match point with Rybakina serving in the third set, before levelling the set 5-5.

“I feel like I always had that mentality when I played, I really don’t like to give up, and I don’t want to give my opponent the match just like that,” Mboko said in a post-match interview with Sportsnet’s Danielle Michaud.

“I wanted to really forget about [the wrist ailment] and I was so locked in that at some point the pain kind of went away.”

Ranked 350th in the world coming into this year, Mboko entered this tournament ranked 85th. She’s guaranteed to rise to at least 34th now.

“Words cannot even describe how I feel right now… If you would have told me last year that I was going to be in the final here, I would have said you’re crazy.”

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