Ben Shelton won the biggest title of his career to-date after claiming the Canadian Open men’s singles crown after a pulsating final 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(3) victory against Karen Khachanov.
Shelton becomes the youngest American ATP Masters 1000 champion since 21-year-old Andy Roddick won the 2004 Miami title. He also surged to fourth in the ATP Live Race to Turin, boosting his chances of qualifying for the ATP Finals in November.
After edging two matches in the earlier rounds in third-set tiebreaks, Shelton had to do it again in final. He dropped the opening set in a breaker but fought back to take the second. In the shootout at 6-6, he raced out to a quick 3-0 lead which he never surrendered, finishing off the win on his second match point. The final lasted two hours and 48 minutes.
Shelton is the fourth first-time Masters 1000 champion in 2025, joining Jack Draper (Indian Wells), Jakub Mensik (Miami), and Casper Ruud (Madrid). It is the third title of Shelton’s career, adding to triumphs in Tokyo in 2023 and Houston in 2024. He has won at least one title for three straight years.
Khachanov blasted 10 forehand winners in the opening set and his power pinned Shelton deep behind the baseline. But on the advice of his coach and father Bryan, Shelton worked his way up the court in the second and third sets to take a more aggressive posture.
Shelton now leads Khachanov 2-0 in their ATP head-to-head series, after also beating the 29-year-old in Indian Wells earlier this year. The players are seeded to meet in the Cincinnati Open quarterfinals.
Mboko stuns Osaka to clinch maiden WTA 1000 title
An 18-year-old Canadian wild card Victoria Mboko stunned four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to win her first WTA 1000 title on home soil at the Canadian Open. After dropping the first set in the championship match, Mboko once again showed her resilience and fighting spirit, breaking in the opening game of the second set which seemed to throw Osaka off her game even though she managed to break back twice during the frame.
Mboko carried her momentum into the final set, cruising to victory against a discouraged opponent to achieve a destiny that seemed written in the stars from the moment she stepped foot in Montreal.
The victory moves Mboko to a career-high no. 25 on the WTA rankings, guaranteeing that she will be seeded for the first at a Grand Slam in New York later this month. Since 1970, Mboko is the second Canadian semifinalist, finalist, and champion, at the Canadian Open after Bianca Andreescu in 2019.
Coming into the tournament, Mboko was ranked 85th in the world. Her victory makes her the second-lowest ranked player to win a Tier I / WTA 1000 title since the format’s introduction in 1990.
She is the second player since 2009 to claim her maiden title at a WTA 1000 event. Mboko is the second wildcard to win the National Bank Open after Monica Seles in 1995.
Her fortnight included four victories over Grand Slam champions — Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina and Osaka. Gauff and Rybakina were seeded No. 1 and No. 3. It’s the first time that’s happened in a single tournament since Ons Jabeur and Elina Svitolina in Wimbledon 2023 — but they weren’t teenagers.
Mboko is the second-youngest player ever to defeat four Grand Slam champions in a single WTA event in the Open Era. The first was Serena Williams in 1999.
The 18-year-old is the first Canadian woman to face four former Women’s Singles Grand Slam champions and the first to beat all four in a single WTA event in the Open Era.