Tennis
When Victoria Mboko tallies up her Canadian Open, the positives column will be overflowing. A first WTA 1,000 semifinal at 18. A statement win over Coco Gauff, a two-time Grand Slam champion, under the lights in Montreal. A rise into the WTA Tour top 50. And a vindication of a season of relentless winning on the third and second tiers of professional tennis, the substance that makes Mboko the real deal, not a fleeting shooting star.
It will now include a 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) win over Elena Rybakina and a first WTA 1,000 final. The result will mean everything now and for so long. In the fullness of time, winning a match in this manner will mean even more.
The fall onto her right wrist that quelled her surge back at the start of the third set might hurt more than just literally tonight and for a few days after, but the way that Rybakina for so long met Mboko’s power with rally tolerance and redirection — and the way that Mboko struggled to return the favor — will represent a blueprint for development to last even longer than the afterglow of a famous victory.
Rybakina’s command of tempo, and Mboko’s struggles to regulate it, especially at key moments, will also trace a route toward further progress — but not more than how Mboko managed to take her time and play her game when her back was against the wall in what appeared to be the dying embers of her tournament.
