Who is Victoria Mboko, the 18-year-old who defeated Naomi Osaka to win her first title at the Canadian Open?
Victoria Mboko didn’t even have a picture on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) website before the Canadian Open in Montreal. Now, the 18-year-old has defeated four-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka in the first WTA Tour final of her career.
Mboko had to come from behind in the 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory to cap off a sensational run in her home country. She is just the third Canadian in the Open Era to win the tournament after Faye Urban in 1969 and Bianca Andreescu in 2019.
“These past two weeks have been insane,” said Mboko, per Reuters. “Even getting the wild card to play here … I was super happy to be playing in Montreal for the first time ever. I just remember feeling nervous, but really taking in the moment as much as I possibly could.”
Playing on the biggest stage of her career to date, Mboko had to show enormous composure in order to win her first title, converting eight of her nine break points against Osaka.
Having started the year ranked No. 333 in the world, she is now set to rise to No. 34 – climbing 55 places since the start of the tournament.
And the teenager had to do it the hard way, defeating four former grand slam champions on the way to the title: Osaka, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff and Sofia Kenin.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/07/sport/tennis-wta-victoria-mboko-profile-intl
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