After shocking Osaka, Gauff, Rybakina, and Kenin with her first WTA 1000 title, Canada’s 18-year-old Victoria Mboko shot up from the shadows to the top 25 in the world rankings. Mboko made a spectacular entrance at the National Bank Open before the showdown.
In front of a sold-out crowd in Montreal, the 85th-ranked Canadian wildcard ended her Cinderella title run on Thursday night by upsetting former world No 1 Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to claim her maiden WTA Tour title. Prolonged shouts for Mboko halted play 30 minutes into the men’s final being played concurrently 330 miles west in her hometown of Toronto.
Mboko became just the third teenager in the open era to win four major champions at a WTA event after defeating four-time grand slam champion Osaka, current Roland Garros champion, world No. 2 Coco Gauff, 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, and 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin. Since Serena Williams raced the table to win the 1999 US Open, she is the youngest.
“If you find yourself in a “first since” or “youngest since” Serena stat, you know you’ve done something special”.
“I think my biggest takeaway is the sky’s the limit,” Mboko said after the win. “I never would have thought I would win a WTA 1000 so soon, that this would be my first WTA title, too”.
Mboko began the year outside of the top 300 and went on to win five ITF titles and the first 20 matches she played, all in straight sets, and sweeping up five ITF titles in the first three months of the season. The bulk of her wins came at professional tennis’ minor league equivalent, but that stretch of play showed what Mboko could do if she got on a roll.
In her debut season, 19-year-old Australian Maya Joint has already won two WTA titles. The three women are the only teens in the WTA’s top 90, along with Mboko and No. 5 Mirra Andreeva.
Nathalie Tauziat, Mboko’s coach, observed from the sidelines while her charge gained practical experience in stress management and competition. Her victory over Osaka marked her third tournament comeback victory. She stunned No. 3 seed Rybakina in a third-set tiebreak in the semifinals by saving a match point.
“In the beginning of the year when I was winning a lot of matches and tournaments, I just had a lot of confidence in myself, to be honest,” Mboko said. “I don’t know where that confidence came from, maybe it was just self-belief. I tried to carry that momentum as much as I possibly could.”
Because of the political unrest in 1999, Mboko’s parents, Cyprien Mboko and Godee Kitadi, left the Democratic Republic of the Congo and immigrated to the United States. Before the family moved to Toronto, Victoria was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. All of her elder siblings were tennis players, and both her brother Kevin and sister Gracia were skilled enough to compete at the collegiate level.
Ons Jabeur Is Taking A Break From Professional Tennis
She used to spend her summers racing around the National Bank Open grounds, trying to get pictures and autographs from her favorite players, such as Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. She even had a picture of herself with a duplicate of the trophy when she was eight years old.
After ten years, she’s no longer a pretender. Hours after the trophy ceremony, Mboko still couldn’t believe she had her hands on the real thing. She will leave Montreal as one of the 25 best players on the WTA Tour, ranked at an astonishing No 24.
When asked whether she feels like one of the 25 best players in the world, Mboko’s said:
“I don’t think I could say yes to that, to be honest,” she said. “It happens, and I honestly think everything’s been happening so fast that I don’t really have time to process it, let alone look at the rankings.
“I feel like when I settle down a little bit and kind of realize what has just happened, so many things will change and I’ll have a different perspective going forward.”
