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New Delhi: Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko magical run of form continued as she entered the final of the Canadian Open with another upset victory.
The 18-year-old saved a match point to beat ninth seed Elena Rybakina 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) in the semi-finals and enter her first WTA Tour singles final.
The wild card entrant became the first Canadian player to beat three former Grand Slam champions (Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Sofia Kenin) in a single WTA event in the Open Era.
She also became the third wildcard to reach the final of the tournament in the Open Era after Monica Seles (1995) and Simona Halep (2015).
"I had everyone supporting me and pushing me through. Without you guys, I don't think I would've been able to pull this through," she said after her match.
In the men's section, 11th seed Karen Khachanov came back from the brink to topple top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4) and enter the final.
“Today was a real close one. I was match-point down, if the ball touches the net and drops over we wouldn't be talking now,” Khachanov said.
“I had to dig deep and lift my level. It was a very demanding, very mental, very physical match. So I'm very happy to get the win after losing some easy ones to him in recent years.”
The 29-year-old Khachanov awaits the winner of second-seeded Taylor Fritz and fourth-seeded Ben Shelton in the title round.
Champion in 2017, the third ranked Zverev rued the missed opportunities.
“I thought I was very brave in the tie-break, I just missed. That's one thing that I wanted to change, it's one thing I wanted to work on… I missed some balls that I wish I wouldn't have missed, but that's the way it is," he said.
"Generally I wasn't feeling the ball well, so it's normal that you miss a little bit more than usual in these kind of situations. But that's okay, I mean, we move on. I have another chance in a few days time in Cincinnati.”
