Third-seeded Victoria Mboko rallied past fellow Canadian and No. 2 seed Leylah Fernandez 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday to reach the Hong Kong Tennis Open final.
It was the third time in four matches this week that Mboko rallied from a set down. The momentum in this match turned after Fernandez took a medical timeout for an apparent thigh injury while leading 2-1 in the second set. Mboko won 11 of the next 14 games to advance.
Mboko, 19, won her maiden WTA Tour title at the Canadian Open in August. Her opponent on Sunday is unseeded 27-year-old Spaniard Cristina Bucsa, who ousted No. 5 seed Maya Joint 6-3, 6-1 in just 57 minutes to reach the first tour-level final of her career.
Jiangxi Open
Teenage wild card Lilli Tagger of Austria saved triple match point and reached her first WTA tournament final with a 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 victory against No. 2 seed Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland.
Tagger, 17, trailed 5-2 in the third set and was down 5-4 and 40-love when she won 13 consecutive points to finish off the remarkable comeback.
Tagger will take on Russian Anna Blinkova, who converted six of 15 break points in a 6-4, 6-4 win against Dominika Salkova of the Czech Republic in the other semifinal. Blinkova, 27, is seeking her second singles title and first since the Transylvania Open in 2022.
–Field Level Media
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