Allez Vicky, Canada's new teenage queen of the court

Michael Jones on how Victoria Mboko shocked the world

- Michael Jones on how Victoria Mboko shocked the world

An 18-year-old tennis prodigy storming through a WTA event, knocking out ranked players and winning the title for the first time in their career. No, we're not talking about Emma Raducanu's run to the US Open final in 2021, but instead Victoria Mboko's eerily similar surge to the final of the Canadian Open in Montreal.

Yet, where Raducanu's charge from qualifier to title winner came out of the blue, Mboko's run feels more like the culmination of a superb season.

The teenager began 2025 ranked outside the top 300 players on the women's tour, but a breakthrough year saw her win 22 successive matches in January and February to clinch four ITF singles titles. By early May, her win-loss record for the season was 33-3.

Her success sent her inside the top 200 in the rankings and earned her a wildcard entry into a first WTA 1000 main draw at the Miami Open where she defeated Camila Osorio in the first round. Mboko then qualified for the Italian Open and was beaten by Coco Gauff in the second round despite taking the opening set off the American.

Two grand slam appearances followed, the first at the French Open, where Mboko fought through qualifying and made it to the third round, and the second at Wimbledon, where she lost to Hailey Baptiste.