No 10 seed Victoria Mboko delivered six aces while recording a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Jelena Ostapenko to reach the final of the Qatar Open at Doha.
Mboko took down Ostapenko one day after upsetting Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in a quarterfinal match.
The Canadian will face Czech Karolina Muchova in Saturday's title match. The No 14 seed beat Maria Sakkari of Greece 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in her semifinal match.
Mboko, 19, will be seeking her third career WTA title on Saturday. She also will enter the top 10 on Monday, regardless of whether she wins (at No 9) or loses (No 10) in the championship match.
"It's kind of crazy," Mboko said afterwards.
"I never expected something to happen so fast for me. I just have been taking it day by day, tournament by tournament.
"Every tournament I enter, I want to do well. I don't really hold that much expectation of myself. It's not like when I enter a tournament I'm going to say I'm going to win it, but you always want to try your best.
"I think this came relatively fast, but it's a nice feeling. It's nice to see that, to have that milestone, to see that number. So, yeah, I'm pretty happy with that."
Ostapenko of Latvia started strong by winning the first two games of the match. Mboko then took over and won 11 of the next 12.
Mboko said she would stick to her plan in the title match.
"I don't want to change something up because what I've been doing has been working so far," she said. "I just want to rest up the best I can, focus for tomorrow, tomorrow's a new day, and just play my game."
Muchova, 29, has won just one singles title and that came in Seoul in 2019. The clash with Mboko will be her seventh WTA final.
"It's going to be the first time," Muchova said of facing Mboko. "I watch her here and she's playing incredible. I know her since last year, probably all of us, she has this boom. I think she's an incredible, strong athlete. So it's for sure going to be a very tough battle."
Muchova had four aces against Sakkari, who saved 11 of 17 break points. Sakkari wilted in the final set as Muchova won the first five games en route to closing out the win. (Reuters)
