Montreal – Saba:
Young Canadian Victoria Mbuku, ranked 85th in the world, reached the final of the Montreal Masters 1000 tennis tournament after a surprise victory on Thursday over Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina, ranked 12th in the world, in two sets to one.
Mbuku won the sets 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4), in a match that lasted two hours and 46 minutes.
Mbuku will face former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka of Japan in the final, after she defeated Denmark's Clara Towson in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6 (9-7).
Mbuku, 18, became the first Canadian woman to reach the final of the tournament since Bianca Andreescu in 2019. She is expected to break into the top 35 after the tournament concludes, having started 2024 ranked 350th in the world. This season, she won four Challenger Tour titles, in addition to reaching the third round at Roland Garros.
Japanese Naomi Osaka continued her preparations for the US Open, reaching her first WTA final since the 2021 Australian Open, after returning from maternity leave in 2024.
Osaka ended her collaboration with French coach Patrick Mouratoglou before the tournament and is currently working with Polish Tomasz Wiktorowsky.