Guillaume Marx admits that even he didn\u2019t predict Victoria Mboko\u2019s rapid ascent.<\/p>\n
Tennis Canada\u2019s vice president of high performance knew the teenager from Toronto was a special talent, but her journey to the centre of the tennis world has been unique. <\/p>\n
Last January, Mboko sat outside the top 300 in the WTA rankings. Now she\u2019s set to enter the top 15.<\/p>\n
Just how high she climbs will depend on her performance at the Australian Open, where she comes in as the No. 17 seed. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot really expect this kind of breakthrough,\u201d Marx said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut sometimes, great players exceed expectations, and so that\u2019s what she\u2019s been doing constantly this year. And I hope she will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mboko is among a new group of young Canadian tennis players primed for big performances in 2026. <\/p>\n
The 19-year-old already has one big showing on the season, having bested American Madison Keys to reach the final of the Adelaide International last week. She fell to Mirra Andreeva in the title match after reporting feeling dizzy. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe shows that she belongs in the top 20,\u201d Marx said of the rising star. \u201cIt\u2019s a crazy but that\u2019s the rhythm she\u2019s going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mboko was among seven Canadians playing singles in the main draw at the Australian Open this week. <\/p>\n
Also competing on the women\u2019s side were world No. 23 Leylah Fernandez and Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ont. <\/p>\n
The men\u2019s competition featured Montreal\u2019s Gabriel Diallo, qualifier Liam Draxl, world No. 8 Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a nation like Canada to have seven singles players in the main draw of a Grand Slam, I think it\u2019s healthy,\u201d Marx said. \u201cIt\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stakusic and Auger-Aliassime both retired from their matches, with Stakusic leaving the court in a wheelchair and Auger-Aliassime dealing with severe cramping.<\/p>\n
Mboko and Shapovalov were the only Canadians to advance to the second round. <\/p>\n
For up-and-coming players like Diallo, Draxl and Stakusic, the Australian Open is still a major step, Marx said. <\/p>\n
Diallo, currently ranked 41st in the world, pushed German star Alexander Zverev in a tough, four-set match. The 24-year-old has high ambitions for 2026, with his sights set on cracking the ATP top 20.<\/p>\n
Getting there will be a challenge and could take more than a calendar year, Marx said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to just compete better, go further in the biggest tournaments,\u201d he said \u201cIt\u2019s defending the points that you have in the in the tournaments, but it\u2019s playing really good and better in the (ATP 500 tournaments) and in the 1000 Master Series events. That\u2019s really what brings you higher in the ranking at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diallo and Draxl are set to don the Maple Leaf next month when Canada hosts Brazil in a Davis Cup tie in Vancouver. They\u2019ll be joined by Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., Nicolas Arsenault of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Cleeve Harper, a doubles specialist from Calgary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a young team with Draxl, with Diallo, players that we will hear from in the next few years,\u201d Marx said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHaving the Davis Cup back to Vancouver, it\u2019s bringing great memories. That\u2019s where Canada broke the ice in 2013, winning the first two ties, getting to the semifinal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winner of the tie, set to be played at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Feb. 6 and 7, will go on to the second qualifying round in September. The seven teams that make it past the second round will join host and defending champion Italy in the Davis Cup Final 8 in November.<\/p>\n
Brazil boasts a 4-2 advantage in head-to-head meetings between the two nations, including a victory in the most recent matchup back in 2007. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guillaume Marx admits that even he didn\u2019t predict Victoria Mboko\u2019s rapid ascent. Tennis Canada\u2019s vice president of high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-422601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}