Victoria Mboko adds her name to history books by reaching Montreal semifinals

Victoria Mboko's star turn in Montreal continues to burn bright. The 18-year-old Canadian is through to the semifinals at the WTA 1000 event after defeating Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals on Monday night.

Backing up a fourth-round stunner over Coco Gauff in style, the 18-year-old is the youngest semifinalist at the WTA 1000 in Canada in a decade, since Belinda Bencic won the title in Toronto in 2015 at just 183 days older than Mboko is now.

But that's not the only eye-popping statistic from the wild card's fifth straight win in Montreal. In just her seventh career WTA main draw, the teenager is also the third player in the Open Era to reach her first tour-level semifinal at the tournament, and the first Canadian to reach the semifinals at the event's staging in Quebec. (Faye Urban and Bianca Andreescu did it in Toronto.)

"To have such an achievement at a tournament like this is really a milestone for me, and I'm just so happy that I've got to have this whole experience in Montreal," Mboko said afterwards. "Overall I don't have many words to say, but I just feel so content and so happy."

Against world No. 51 Bouzas Maneiro, Mboko had no letdown after her 6-1, 6-4 stunner against the top seed and Roland Garros champion two days ago. She broke serve five times in one hour and 12 minutes, and won the last six games of the match.

Mboko is the third teenager to reach a WTA 1000 semifinal in 2025 after Mirra Andreeva and Alexandra Eala in March at Indian Wells and Miami—a first for women's tennis since 2009. But should she want to keep her breakthrough run going, and become the third Canadian to reach the final at her home event in the Open Era, she'll have to topple the woman who ended her previous best-ever WTA tournament run.

Mboko next faces former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, who defeated her 6-3, 7-5 last week in Washington, D.C. in the Round of 16.

"I think I just need to maybe up my level a little bit and just to stay in there with her," Mboko added. "You know, she has really great groundstrokes, really great serves. So I guess on that day I want to do my best to kind of stay in there with her."