(Reuters) -Teenager Victoria Mboko survived a first-set wobble to battle to a 1-6 7-5 7-6(4) win over 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and set up a Canadian Open showdown with Naomi Osaka, while men’s top seed Alexander Zverev was stunned by Karen Khachanov.
Mboko, ranked 85th in the world, saved a match point against Kazakh ninth seed Rybakina in front of adoring home support as the 18-year-old became the first Canadian to beat three former Grand Slam champions in a single WTA event in the Open Era.
She has beaten Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff and Rybakina in her stunning run to the final in Montreal.
She is also just the third wildcard to reach the final at the Canadian Open in the Open Era after Monica Seles in 1995 and Simona Halep in 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,” Mboko said after reaching her first WTA 1000 final.
Meanwhile, four-times Grand Slam champion Osaka booked a place in a WTA 1000 final for the first time since Miami 2022 after another impressive display, beating Danish 16th seed Clara Tauson 6-2 7-6(7) in the second semi-final.
The 27-year-old Osaka, a former world number one, is the first Japanese player in the Open Era to reach the final at the Canadian Open.
In the men’s tournament in Toronto, Zverev, a three-times Grand Slam runner-up, suffered a 6-3 4-6 7-6(4) loss against Russian 11th seed Karen Khachanov in the semis.
The 29-year-old Khachanov, who will climb to 12th in the world rankings, saved a match point to reach his second ATP Masters 1000 final, with the previous coming at Paris in 2018 where he upset Novak Djokovic.
“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,” Khachanov, who lost the last three encounters against Zverev, said after their near three-hour battle.
“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 will face American fourth seed Ben Shelton, who upset second-seeded countryman Taylor Fritz 6-4 6-3 to become the youngest American to reach an ATP Masters 1000 final since Andy Roddick in Toronto in 2004, in the final.
Australian Open semi-finalist Shelton, 22, will be playing his first ATP Masters 1000 final when he takes on Khachanov.
“For me it’s the level — 100%. I’m just looking for things in my game to just kind of improve and I’ve seen so many big improvements this week. So, that’s what I’m most happy about — the way I’m playing, how I’m executing, how little I’m hesitating…,” Shelton said.
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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