MONTREAL — Less than 24 hours after the biggest win of her career, Victoria Mboko was back to the grind.
Under the watchful eye of coach Nathalie Tauziat, the 18-year-old Canadian unleashed groundstrokes, serves, volleys and returns while working up a good sweat for about an hour in windy, hazy conditions Sunday.
Afterward, Mboko made her way down the length of the court to sign autographs and take selfies with fans who lined the fence to watch a practice. After all, it’s not every day you can get courtside to watch a player with this kind of buzz.
“Even yesterday in my warmup before the match, there were quite a bit of people kind of watching my practice,” Mboko told Sportsnet’s Danielle Michaud after her Sunday hit with Laval, Que. native and University of North Dakota team member Ange-Kevin Koua.
“I’m not used to it. It’s kind of new to me. It’s nice to have a lot of people come and watch, and those are the same people who are going to support me.”
Indeed, they’ll be out in full force Monday night at IGA Stadium with the spotlight firmly on Mboko heading into a quarterfinal against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain.
With all other Canadians in the men’s and women’s NBO eliminated in singles play last Friday or earlier, Mboko’s improbable run — highlighted by Saturday’s win over top seed Coco Gauff — has given the tournament a huge boost.
“For me, it’s a breakthrough, really,” said Guillaume Marx, Tennis Canada’s vice-president of high performance. “For sure, her world is changing. (A few) months ago, she was practising here and she was saying, ‘Oh, I would like to see how it looks here, the setup. I’ve actually never been here during the tournament (because she usually watched the NBO closer to home in Toronto).’
“She was really excited to play. She’s (having) an amazing run. She will understand probably after the tournament that her world is kind of changing. She will have to cope with that and keep going and improving.”
But first things first — there’s a tournament here very much up for grabs.
Bouzas Maneiro, the world No. 51, has nowhere near the resume of Gauff, but she beat No. 9 seed Emma Navarro at this year’s French Open and knocked off then-defending champion Marketa Vondrousova at Wimbledon last year.
In other words, this is anything but a gimme.
Mboko, who will rise to at least No. 55 in the rankings later this week after starting the year outside the top 300, certainly won’t sneak up on Bouzas Maneiro after notching her 50th win of this huge campaign against one of the top players in the sport.
World No. 8 Madison Keys, now 30 years old, understands the challenge facing Mboko. The American also reeled off her first career win over a top-10 opponent when she was 18, downing then-No. 6 Li Na in 2013 in Madrid. One year later, Keys captured her first career WTA Tour title. Her first Grand Slam championship came this year at the Australian Open.
“I think a big win like that, it changes expectations a little bit and it definitely can add some pressure,” said Keys, who also advanced to the quarterfinals here with a three-set win over Karolina Muchova on Sunday.
“I think people start maybe expecting a little bit more of you. But at the same time, you’re also still young and there’s lots of tennis ahead of you and there’s going to be lots of ups and lots of downs.
“But it’s been really great to kind of watch her. I think she’s a fantastic tennis player. I don’t think any of us were too surprised she’d kind of had the rise she’s had.”
In the Ontario tennis community, the potential has been on display for years.
Mboko’s 2025 surge has followed two injury-marred years, temporarily halting momentum for a very promising youngster.
Nelson Perez Esis, the tennis director of Toronto’s Top Performance Tennis Academy, won’t soon forget watching Mboko about seven years ago. Gracia Mboko, one of Victoria’s three older tennis-playing siblings and a former NCAA player, couldn’t make it out to an Intercounty league doubles match, so a pre-teen Victoria took her place at Toronto’s Henry Farm Tennis Club.
“She was impersonating her sister,” Perez Esis chuckled, noting Victoria and her partner won the match.
“… Kevin (Victoria’s brother) and Gracia were polished, finishing college, and are both great players. You could see that the prodigy of the family was going to be the last one. Now it’s a reality.”
The big question now is where this story goes from here. A win Monday would put Mboko in the top 50, and just two wins away from what would be a truly remarkable tourney triumph.
“Obviously, she’s doing great,” Marx said. “I think she stands up for the moment. She was impressed, I believe, by the crowd yesterday because it was packed. You rarely play in a stadium that’s fully packed with people cheering behind you. I believe she was impressed, and she delivers. I mean, for her confidence, it’s just huge.”
