Canadian teen Victoria Mboko captivated tennis—and Canada—when she recently defeated Naomi Osaka towin the National Bank Open women’s singles title.
The 18-year-old went from wildcard entrant to a national hero and treasure as she beat four Grand Slam champions in a stunning run in Montreal. She is Canada’s first tournament champion since Bianca Andreescu ended this country’s 50-year drought in 2019.
Here’s everything you need to know about Mboko as she prepares for her debut in the U.S. Open’s main draw.
Who is Victoria Mboko?
Victoria “Vicky” Mboko was born in Charlotte, N.C., to parents who fled political turmoil in the Democratic Republic of Congo. When she was two months old, the family moved to Toronto, where Mboko and her three older siblings—who all played tennis as well—grew up watching the sport at Sobeys Stadium.
Mboko, who will turn 19 during the U.S. Open on Aug. 26, began playing tennis at age 4 and started competing at an early age, but one early victory had a lasting impact on her career. In 2014 she won the Champions Under-10 tournament at age 7, giving her a $6,000 prize that went toward her coaching. After her first International Tennis Federation pro tournament win in 2022, she personally thanked the man whose donation made it possible.
That same year, agents came calling as she rose to prominence in juniors and made two Grand Slam junior doubles finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
Mboko has blossomed on the pro circuit this season and has sped through the lower rungs that take most young players years. In January and February, she won four ITF titles, securing 22 consecutive match victories without dropping a set, before she made her WTA-1000 singles main draw debut at the Miami Open in March. Mboko also made the third round at the French Open and won a match at Wimbledon this year.
Who are Victoria Mboko’s coaches?
After training much of last year at the Justine Henin Academy in Belgium, Mboko wanted to return home and has been coached by Nathalie Tauziat and Noëlle van Lottum since November 2024. Tauziat is a French former player who reached No. 3 in both singles and doubles play and also formerly coached Andreescu. A Dutch-French former player and coach, van Lottum has been working as the head women’s national coach for Tennis Canada in Montreal since 2023.
What is Mboko’s WTA ranking?
Mboko’s ranking soared from No. 85 to No. 24 in the WTA Rankings after her National Bank Open victory, an incredible ascent from No. 333, where she started the season. She is Canada’s highest-ranked woman, having leapfrogged No. 33 Leylah Fernandez.
Her victory also made her the youngest player in the Open Era to defeat four Grand Slam champions in a single tournament—Osaka, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, and Sofia Kenin—since 17-year-old Serena Williams did it at the 1999 U.S. Open.
Victoria Mboko tries to stay grounded as her career takes off.
But Mboko says she is trying not to let the fact she won a WTA Masters 1000-level tournament—one rung below a Grand Slam—or the rising expectations get to her.
“I don’t like to put pressure or set goals for myself, because anything can happen, and I’m okay with it. That’s sports,” she told The Globe after her win in Montreal. “My goals are kind of the same. I just want to play the best I can every time I play. Every tournament, I’m always going to be in it to win it.”
How much money did Mboko win at the National Bank Open?
After a life-changing run, Mboko took home US$752,275 at the National Bank Open—nearly double what she’s made in prize money in her whole career so far. According to the WTA, the prize brings her total winnings to $1,195,240, and she is guaranteed at least another US$110,000 for making it into the main draw of the U.S. Open.
Mboko couldn’t think of anything she’d like to buy with the money when asked by The Globe after her NBO win. But she said she treated herself to extra time with her family and friends in Montreal before she made the six-hour drive back to Toronto with her parents and sister.
What makes Mboko such a good tennis player?
Mboko’s commanding and powerful play, strength, and ball-striking began drawing attention several years ago, but the teen’s resilience and maturity at such a young age have also set her apart.
“What makes [Mboko] special is obviously the power that she can generate from the serve and from the baseline. I believe she has an exceptional backhand, like way above normal,” Guillaume Marx, Tennis Canada’s vice-president of high performance, told The Globe earlier this summer, “and then she has the mentality, the belief.”
In Montreal, Mboko was lauded for her mental toughness, as she beat players with more experience, rebounded after losing the first set of matches, fought back in games that looked lost, and battled through pain in her wrist.
“In terms of the champions that we see in tennis and in any sport, it always feels like there’s something special about them, and it needs to be in you. And I think she has that in her, and … we can see that right now, just by how composed she is,” said tournament director Valerie Tétreault.
According to Mboko, she gets it from her “very calm” father. “He’s a very relaxed person, so yeah, I think I take from him a little bit,” she said.
With reports from Rachel Brady
