Montreal, Aug 5 (IANS) Victoria Mboko’s fairytale run at the Canadian Open continues as the 18-year-old advanced to her first WTA 1000-level semifinal after beating big-hitting Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-2.

The Canadian wild card, who was ranked outside the Top 300 at this time last year, is projected to break into the world’s Top 50 following her run this week.

Since 1970, Mboko is only the second local player to reach the semifinals at the Canadian Open, following Bianca Andreescu in 2019. She also becomes the youngest Canadian player in the Open Era to reach the semifinals at the event. Moreover, Mboko is the youngest from any nation to achieve the feat at the WTA 1000 level since Belinda Bencic in 2015.

Mboko, coached by former Wimbledon finalist Nathalie Tauziat, is just the fourth Canadian woman to reach the semifinals at a Tier 1/WTA 1000 event, joining Helen Kelesi, Eugenie Bouchard and Andreescu.

Standing in her way in the semi-finals on Wednesday night is a Grand Slam champion Elena Rybakina, who overcame Mboko a little over a week ago in Washington in straight sets.

Earlier in the day, Kazakhstan’s Rybakina reached her second semifinal in Montreal after Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk retired midway.

Rybakina led 6-1, 2-1 when Kostyuk withdrew with a wrist injury. It marked her third consecutive win over her Ukrainian rival (U.S. Open 2023, Stuttgart 2024 and Montreal 2025), after losing their first meeting in 2023 (Adelaide).

This is Rybakina’s 10th WTA 1000-level semifinal and her fifth semifinal appearance of the season — the ñ third most on tour behind world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka (nine) and No. 2 Iga Swiatek (seven).

The semifinal between Mboko and Rybakina will be their second meeting in as many weeks, with Rybakina having defeated the Canadian 6-3, 7-5 at the Citi Open in Washington last week.

–IANS

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