Victoria Mboko and Janice Tjen are among a group of players who have been selected as the “season’s most promising and breakthrough talents” in the International Tennis Federation’s “Class of 2025”.
Lilli Tagger, Arnaud Bailly and Luka Mikrut are the other players who have been honoured for their performances on the ITF World Tennis Tour, while in the case of Mboko and Tjen, they also starred at the top level with the pair rising on the WTA Tour.
Mboko started her year on the ITF circuit as she was ranked No 333, but she cracked the top 200 in March on the back off winning five ITF titles and was handed a wildcard entry into the Miami Open.
The teen claimed her first WTA Tour-level win at the WTA 1000 event and not long after made her Grand Slam debut as she came through qualifying at Roland Garros, reaching the third round to break into the top 100 of the rankings.
But that was only the start of things to come as she made the tennis world sit up and take note of her talent at the Canadian Open as she defeated Grand Slam winners Coco Gauff Sofia Kenin and Elena Rybakina en route to her maiden top-level final.
There she met former world No 1 Naomi Osaka and came from a set down to become the second wildcard in the Open Era to win the tournament, after Monica Seles in 1995.
That resulted in a jump from No 85 to No 24, but she was not done as she won a second title in October, the Hong Kong Open, to climb into the top 20.
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Mboko ultimately finished the year at No 18 and was a well-deserved recipient of the ITF award.
“I’m very happy to be recognised as part of the Class of 2025 by the ITF,” she told the official ITF website. “It really means a lot to me and I’m really grateful to have been a part of this award.
“It’s been such a great year. Starting the year off playing many tournaments, especially in Europe and the Caribbean, I gained a lot of momentum and confidence which has helped me throughout the year when playing more WTA tournaments.
“Starting off there let me have a lot of matchplay, and playing such difficult players prepared me physically and mentally for the WTA Tour.
“I’m really grateful for everything that I went through this year. It has helped me become a better player overall.”
The Tjen Success Story
Tjen also had a remarkable 2025 season as she finished the campaign at No 53 after starting the year at No 411.
The Indonesian won six ITF titles in the space of three months and she reached the top 200 by the end of July before making her Grand Slam debut at the US Open after coming through qualifying.
She upset 24th seed Veronika Kudermetova in three sets to become the first Indonesian woman to win a Grand Slam match since 2003 before losing in the second round.
The 23-year-old then reached her maiden WTA final as she finished runner-up at the SP Open before going one better at the Chennai Open in October while she also won the WTA Challenger Jinan Open.
As a result, she jumped from No 102 at the end of September to No 53 at the beginning of November.
“The ITF World Tennis Tour has helped me progress by providing lots of different competitive opportunities and levels of tournaments as well as a variety of players to play against all across the world,” Tjen said.
“It’s helped me to develop my game with the high volume of matches and challenges throughout 2025.”