Amid a flurry of post-victory photos, Victoria Mboko poses with a Canadian flag and the trophy at the umpire’s chair following her National Bank Open win in Montreal on Thursday night.Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
Victoria Mboko had begun Thursday with a swollen, stiff wrist that concerned her enough to visit the hospital for an MRI. The 18-year-old ended that same day hoisting the National Bank Open trophy and savouring the best night of her young tennis life.
She had injured the wrist falling on court during her semi-final win over Elena Rybakina the previous night. Once imaging and X-rays showed no serious damage to the wrist, her worries dissipated and she went to IGA Stadium Thursday afternoon to prepare for the biggest match of her life.
Mboko later divulged that the wrist was aggravated during the final win over Naomi Osaka. But the rising Canadian tennis star was resilient – a trait that served the wild card well throughout her storybook run to the title at Canada’s marquee tennis tournament.
Victoria Mboko prevails against Naomi Osaka in National Bank Open final, capping stunning run
She won seven matches in 12 days, each one more scintillating than the last, with more Canadians tuning into her story by the day. Four of those victories were over Grand Slam champions, making Mboko the youngest player to do that in a single tournament since a 17-year-old Serena Williams won her first U.S. Open in 1999.
Tennis legends Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova each lauded and congratulated Mboko on social media. Ditto for Canadian Prime Minster Mark Carney.
The CN Tower was lit red and white in Mboko’s honour. The ATP final, going on at the same time in Toronto, had to stop when fans in the stands erupted on learning that Mboko had won, and they broke out in cheers.
A fan cheers for Victoria Mboko at the National Bank Open final in Montreal on Thursday.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
Countless tennis pundits have reacted.
“This kid is the REAL deal,” Rennae Stubbs, a WTA coach and ESPN broadcaster, posted on X. “She has so much raw ability, power, grit, great mover, huge serve, just amazing upside. There are some technical things on serve I would clean up, but damn she is going to win a lot of matches on the WTA tour.”
Mboko arrived in Montreal as a rising player at No. 85 but she leaves on another level. With the tournament in the books, her bio on the WTA website now reflects the jaw-dropping changes. For 2025, her win-loss record is now 53-9, with one WTA singles title, US$1.19-million dollars in prize money and a new world ranking of No. 24. She has leapfrogged No. 26 Leylah Fernandez as Canada’s highest-ranked woman.
Mboko’s title run was so delightfully unexpected. Most had never heard of the young tennis player before this summer, and suddenly she was compelling Canadians to turn on their TVs every night and becoming part of their daily conversations. They were gripped by every point, inspired by her family story, and erupted in celebration when the unlikely youngster finally willed herself over the line.
Mboko injected some fun and inspiration into a bleak news cycle dominated by tariffs, wildfires and war.
In both the semi-final and final, Victoria Mboko had to show her resilience, forced to battle back after losing the opening set both times.David Kirouac/Reuters
Her early-round matches flew under the radar while the spotlight focused on the retiring Genie Bouchard. The teenager quietly beat Kimberly Birrell, then Sofia Kenin and Marie Bouzkova. Her round-of-16 win over top-seeded Coco Gauff served notice that the kid was a contender. More media surged into Montreal.
She then toppled Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in straight sets. Then Mboko honed her reputation as a comeback kid in the final two matches. Despite losing a lopsided first set to both Rybakina and to Osaka, the unseeded Canadian rallied in both the semis and finals.
“I always think of sets as, like, checkpoints,” Mboko explained. “So once I finish the first set, I completely put it behind me, and I start a new little chapter.”
Mboko enjoyed a lengthy celebration inside IGA Stadium after winning the title on Thursday – Canada’s first champ at the event since Bianca Andreescu won the 2019 edition in Toronto, and the first to do it in Montreal. Mboko hugged coaches, family and friends. She posed for photos – so many photos. Holding the trophy in numerous ways, perched up on the umpire’s chair draped in a Canadian flag, huddling with ball kids and volunteers. She signed autographs for an eternity, while fans sang her name joyously: “Vic-toria M-bo-ko, Hey!”
Frankly, neither woman played her best tennis in the final, with both committing errors and double faults. Osaka was frustrated, throwing her racquet and the tennis balls left in her pocket, covering her ears from the noise. The Japanese player did not congratulate the champ during her painfully brief on-court runner-up speech
Mboko was unfazed when asked about the on-court snub from a player she admired.
“I mean, I still think Naomi is an incredible player, and it doesn’t ever change what I think of her,” she said. “I think she’s still a really nice girl. I still look up to her. Nothing really changes.”
Naomi Osaka, right, skipped the post-match press conference following her National Bank Open final loss to Victoria Mboko on Thursday.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Osaka skipped a news conference after the match. But late Thursday, the WTA provided quotes from the 27-year-old four-time Grand Slam champion.
“[Thursday] morning I was very grateful. I don’t know why my emotions flipped so quickly, but I’m really happy to have played the final,” Osaka said. “I think Victoria played really well. I completely forgot to congratulate her on the court. I mean, she did really amazing.”
Those who know Mboko felt proud to watch her victory, but they aren’t surprised. That includes Simon Larose, a Tennis Canada coach who worked with her from 2020 to 2022.
“She’s someone that hates to lose, and she figures it out, because she’s a fighter. She always has been,” said Larose.
Larose recalled Mboko often being the youngest of a group of Canadian girls training in Montreal and travelling together – all friends but they pushed each other.
“The level was pretty high and she was the youngest one, so I think it was good for her, and also coming from a family of tennis siblings that are older than her,” Larose said. “All those things really helped her in her tennis, because she was always trying to beat people that were older and stronger.”
Tennis Canada has long kept predictive indicators that give an idea how successful a young player in their development system will become, based on their successes while growing up. There were plenty of indicators early that Mboko was special, like when she won a senior-level ITF Challenger tournament in Saskatoon when she was just 15.
“Results when she was 15 and 16 were such that, the belief was that she would be a very accomplished, top-level professional player,” said Sylvain Bruneau, who was then Tennis Canada’s head of professional and transitional women’s tennis.
While expressing many times how happy she was Thursday, the humble Mboko took a no-big-deal approach to the victory.
“I understand why there would be such a noise around it, but you know, I like to keep things very simple,” she said.
“I don’t want to put so much pressure on myself just because of something that happened this week, because life goes on. . . There’s always another tournament, whether win or lose. I’m just happy to live the moment. Once it’s passed, it’s passed.”