Victoria Mboko suffered a major scare in her Canadian Open semifinal against Elena Rybakina.
Mboko managed to beat Elena Rybakina to continue her dream run at the Canadian Open and reach the final.
This has followed on from Mboko’s previous victories against Coco Gauff, Sofia Kenin and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
While there is an understandable amount of excitement around Mboko, there is also some concern after she appeared to hurt her wrist after falling on court.
Victoria Mboko reveals how her wrist is feeling after falling at the Canadian Open
After levelling the match up after winning the second set, the momentum appeared to be turning in the way of Mboko.
However, the Canadian teenager suffered a big setback in the second game of the deciding set, with Mboko falling on her wrist after hitting a forehand.
Mboko received a medical timeout after this and subsequently went a break down, before fighting back to beat Rybakina, 1-6 7-5 7-6(4).
When asked about how her wrist was feeling in her post-match press conference, Mboko revealed that it was feeling a lot better ahead of the Canadian Open final.
“Yeah, it’s been a crazy night for me,” said Mboko. “For my first-ever final of a 1000, it’s unbelievable to even think about it, and I’m just really happy to be here and just to celebrate it with all the Canadian fans that came to watch.”
She added when asked about her wrist, “Yeah, it’s feeling a lot better. When I fell, of course, in the match, it was a lot of, like, emotions. It was during the match, a lot of adrenaline.
“It was kind of a little bit painful during that, but it’s definitely cooled down a lot more. I’m just going to take care of it tonight and just have some rest.”
Victoria Mboko explains how she felt in the big moments of her Canadian Open semifinal
Mboko even had to save a match point to beat Rybakina, who was ranked 73 players higher than her prior to the Canadian Open.
At 18 years old experiencing this run, it would be understandable if nerves eventually got the better of Mboko.
Mboko has now revealed that she was suffering from nerves, particularly in the third set tie-break, and could not believe she was actually able to beat Rybakina.
“Well, in that moment, I mean, since it was really tight — I mean, it was 7-6 in the third, so I kind of — on the match point I kind of had some nerves a little bit,” explained Mboko.
“But I mean, when I had that winning point and I won, I really couldn’t believe it, because at some point, I mean, I feel like I kind of lost a little bit, and she was really dominating. So to have gone through what I have gone through in the third set and to win it on the match point just felt really, really great.”
Mboko is predicted to be a top five ranked player, and is already confirmed to make her debut in the top 40.
She will now look to win her first WTA title at her home 1000 event at the Canadian Open, with now only former world number one Naomi Osaka standing in the way of the title.
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