Canada’s Mboko completes fairytale run with National Bank Open title
She’s a rising star, a fighter — and now, a champion.
Victoria Mboko did it again on Thursday night, rallying back through a wrist injury to defeat four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the National Bank Open final, capping a fairytale run that fans across Canada won’t soon forget.
The 18-year-old Canadian tennis sensation dropped to her knees after Osaka fired a shot into the net as a packed house hit ear-splitting decibels around IGA Stadium’s centre court.
“It’s been an incredible week here in Montreal,” Mboko told the crowd in a post-match ceremony. “Montreal, je vous aime!”
Mboko hugged her family and coaches in the courtside box after gutting out another thrilling comeback to claim her first career WTA title — at a 1000-level event, no less.
She became the third Canadian to win the hometown tournament in the Open Era, joining Bianca Andreescu (2019) and Faye Urban (1969), and the first to do so in Montreal.
And Mboko did it with a stiff and swollen wrist that was “hard to move.”
After falling hard early in Wednesday’s third set, Mboko woke up Thursday morning and rushed to the hospital for X-rays and an MRI, but ultimately received the green light to play.
“Today was such an eventful day actually,” said Mboko, who shook her wrist in visible discomfort often Thursday. “It feels unbelievable right now. I mean, words cannot really describe how today went.
“There’s some moments where it was aggravating me a lot, but I feel like it was the final. I just kept saying to myself, ‘You have one more to go.’”
With her wrist wrapped in a bandage, Mboko piled up a whopping 13 double faults, and the speed of her first serves dipped as low as 120 kilometres per hour instead of the usual 180 late in the second set.
But it didn’t matter.
The Toronto phenom, who also grew up in Burlington, Ont., will now climb to 25th in the women’s singles world rankings, a stunning rise after she began the year outside the top 300 and started the tournament ranked 85th.
Mboko improved to 53-9 in all competitions this year, including 27-8 against higher-ranked players. She also took home US$752,275 for winning the tournament after earning just $458,001 in her career before the event.
In a heroic final game, Mboko battled from 40-15 down against Osaka’s serve to win the match, kicking it off with a remarkable rush to the net after the Japanese star just barely touched the ball over. Mboko retrieved the ball a split-second before it bounced a second time, hitting it into an open backcourt and falling to the ground as the crowd erupted.
“At that point, I had the fighting mentality,” she said. “I wanted to run and put as many balls back in the court as possible. I wanted it so badly that I think falling was a little bit worth it.”
The Canadian followed with a massive forehand winner before Osaka struck a shot long to set up match point, fans rising to their feet, and Mboko made no mistake.
“When I had that winning moment and seeing so many people standing up and cheering for me, it was kind of a surreal experience,” she said. “I would have never thought something like this would have came so suddenly.
“It just proves that your dreams are closer than they (seem).”
It was Mboko’s second jaw-dropping performance in as many nights.
She reached the final by winning a match for the ages in the semifinal, climbing from one set down, saving a match point and battling through her wrist ailment to upset former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) in an absolute thriller.
Mboko’s breakout moment also included wins over 2020 Australian Open champ Sofia Kenin and world No. 2 Coco Gauff, ousting the tournament’s top seed in a 62-minute fourth-round demolition.
She became the first Canadian player to defeat three former women’s singles Grand Slam champions in a single WTA event in the Open Era on Wednesday — and extended it to four on Thursday.
Osaka, meanwhile, was seeking her eighth title and first since the 2021 Australian Open.
She put on a clinic in the first set, holding Mboko without a breakpoint chance. That changed drastically in the second and third, where serving hardly seemed to be an advantage in an error-filled two sets. Mboko broke Osaka eight times on nine opportunities, and in total there were 14 service breaks in 25 games.
Before Osaka could even put the opening serve of the match in play, fans disrupted Mboko’s opponent with “Go Vicky!” chants.
When the Japanese star double-faulted on the second point, the crowd let out a loud, extended “Yeah!”
The crowd was so rowdy, the umpire repeatedly asked fans to “please be quiet during the points.”
Osaka stayed composed early despite the hostile environment, but later showed frustration as the match unravelled. At 1-1 in the third set, she struck a ball into the crowd after faulting on her first serve.
When the crowd applauded the runner-up with some yelling mixed in following the match, Osaka said, “Thanks, I guess,” and did not congratulate Mboko on her victory.
“I don’t really wanna take up too much time,” she told the crowd. “I’ll just say thank you to everyone. Thank you to my team, the ball kids, organizers and volunteers, and I hope you guys had a good night.”
Osaka later declined to speak with reporters in a post-match news conference, but said she “completely forgot to congratulate” Mboko in a transcript provided by the WTA.
It was a dream matchup on multiple fronts.
In one corner, Mboko, a teenager announcing herself as Canada’s next tennis star. In the other, the 27-year-old Osaka, a former world No. 1 having a resurgence after stepping away for 15 months for the birth of her daughter in July 2023.
Both players were unseeded — the third time ever in a WTA 1000 final — and Mboko was only the third wild card to make the tournament final.
Mboko arrived in Montreal with her star rising in the tennis world.
A promising junior player who dealt with a nagging knee injury the past two years, she began the season on a 22-match unbeaten streak in the lower-tier ITF Tour before rising through qualifying to the French Open third round and making more noise at Wimbledon.
Her breakthrough in Montreal put her on the map in her home country.
Over in Toronto, the Sobeys Stadium crowd broke out into cheers when Mboko’s win was announced during the men’s singles final between Ben Shelton and Karen Khachanov, confusing both players.
“She’s done it! Incredible performance by our Canadian champion, Victoria Mboko!” Prime Minister Mark Carney posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.
Tournament director Valérie Tétreault said before the final that “It’s been all about Vicky Mboko.”
“Montreal, Quebec, and even across the country, right now everybody is following what’s happening at this tournament and is inspired by this young woman, only 18 years of age, who keeps surprising us,” she said. “She has a bright future ahead of her.”
Tennis Canada announced a third sellout with Mboko playing and a total of 287,329 spectators for this year’s revamped 12-day, 96-player National Bank Open.
Next up, Mboko has withdrawn from the Cincinnati Open and will now be seeded at the U.S. Open, the final Grand Slam of the season in late August.
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