Teenager Victoria Mboko won her first-ever WTA Tour title with a superb comeback victory over Naomi Osaka in the Canadian Open final.
Mboko, the 18-year-old wildcard, completed a fairytale run to the trophy in Montreal by toppling her fourth Grand Slam champion of the tournament, defeating Osaka, a previous world No1, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.
En route to the final, she had beaten the American Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff, and Elena Rybakina, and she produced an incredible fightback against Osaka to secure the title.
Osaka, the four-time major winner, raced into a 3-0 lead in the opening exchanges, taking the first with relative ease, but Mboko roared back in front of her home support.
She broke to go up 5-2 in the second, before she earned herself a 3-1 advantage in the decider after saving four break points in a crucial fourth game.
Mboko, who was ranked world No333 at the start of the year, is now projected to get to world No34 as a result of her exploits in Montreal.
"These past two weeks have been insane," she said afterwards.
"Even getting the wild card to play here. I was super happy to be playing in Montreal for the first time ever. I just remember feeling nervous, but really taking in the moment as much as I possibly could.
"When I won my first round, I was super happy and super content. I would have never thought that I would have made it to the final let alone win the tournament.
"I want to thank Naomi from an incredible match. I've always looked up to her when I was very little. It's always great to play with such an amazing player like you.
Mboko will play at the US Open for the first time in her nascent career later this month, which, as she puts it, will be one of many “new beginnings”.
"I'll be playing it for the first time, so there's a lot of new beginnings for me," she said.
"Although I'm experiencing everything for the first time this year, I think along the way it's obviously going to be an up-and-down journey, but I just want to enjoy the process as much as possible.
"Not everything will go my way or not everything is going to be positive but I'm just really happy to be in this situation. I think it builds character."
