Canada was still catching its collective breath from Summer McIntosh’s record-breaking swims when 18-year-old Victoria Mboko grabbed the spotlight at the National Bank Open and never let go.
In front of a sold-out crowd in Montreal, the 85th-ranked Canadian wildcard finished her Cinderella title run on Thursday night by beating former world No 1 Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to win her first WTA Tour title. Prolonged cheers for Mboko interrupted play 30 minutes into the men’s final being played concurrently 330 miles west in her hometown of Toronto.
“I guess the Canadian player won in Montreal,” chair umpire Fergus Murphy explained to the confused players.
That’s the Mboko effect.
With wins over four-time grand slam champion Osaka, reigning Roland Garros champion and world No 2 Coco Gauff, 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, and 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, Mboko became just the third teen in the open era to oust four major champions at a WTA event. She’s the youngest since Serena Williams ran the table to win the 1999 US Open.
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 told the Guardian 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 started the year ranked outside the top 300 and proceeded to win 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.
Maya Joint is a 19-year-old Australian who has already won two WTA titles in her breakout season. Along with Mboko and No 5 Mirra Andreeva, the trio are the only teenagers in the WTA’s top 90.
“Winning titles gives you a lot of confidence that you can do it,” Joint told the Guardian, “that you can win that many matches in a row and stay focused for that long.”
Mboko’s game has proven to be a difficult Rubik’s Cube to solve, even for the game’s best. It is as intelligent as it is physical, a potent blend of power and discipline. She can overwhelm her opponents with power or use her speed and defense to trap them into errors. The choice, on any given day, is hers.
“She’s very athletic,” said top-seeded Gauff after Mboko handed her a 6-1, 6-4 exit in the round of 16. “She’s a great ball striker, and she seems pretty positive out there on the court, doesn’t get really too negative.”
“I don’t know her too well, but I’ve gotten to talk to her a little bit over the course since Rome. I think she has a great support system around her, and I think that’s important when you’re young and on tour.”
Mboko’s coach Nathalie Tauziat watched from the sidelines as her charge learned in real time how to compete and manage stress. So long as she kept her head, Tauziat told her, the talented teen was always in with a shot. Montreal proved to be her showcase. Her win over Osaka was her third come-from-behind win of the tournament. In the semi-finals, she saved a match point to stun No 3 seed Rybakina in a third-set tiebreak.
“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.”
Mboko’s parents, Cyprien Mboko and Godee Kitadi, fled the Democratic Republic of Congo due to the political turmoil in 1999 and emigrated to the United States. Victoria was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, before the family relocated to Toronto. Her older siblings all played tennis, with her sister Gracia and brother Kevin being good enough to play at the collegiate level.
She spent her summers running around the grounds at the National Bank Open chasing autographs and photos with her favorite players like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils. She even has a photo of herself at eight years old holding a replica of the trophy.
Ten years on, 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 humility kicked in.
“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.”
That perspective now shifts to the US Open, a tournament that has been very good to the Canadians. In 2019, a 19-year-old Bianca Andreescu became Canada’s first grand slam singles champion there. Two years later, Leylah Annie Fernandez stormed into the final. Could Mboko follow their well-worn path? She certainly isn’t ruling it out.
“When I started playing on the WTA Tour, I never thought in my head if I belonged or not because I just thought, a match is just a match,” Mboko said.
“I always knew everyone was really good, but I felt that at the end of the day, anything is possible.”
