Canadian teenage sensation Victoria Mboko made a big statement to the professional tennis world last week in her home country.
Mboko, 18, won the National Bank Open in Montreal to achieve her first professional tournament championship. She became the third Canadian player to win the tournament in the past 46 years, joining Faye Urban (1969) and Bianca Andreescu (2019).
What was most impressive about her win was the incredible path she took to get there.
Mboko defeated four former Grand Slam winners en route to the championship. In the finals, she defeated four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. Her most impressive victory came in the quarterfinals when she defeated No. 1 seed Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-2. Mboko needed just a little more than an hour to defeat Gauff, a two-time Grand Slam winner and the current No. 2 player in the world.
Mboko also defeated 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina. She became the first teenage player to defeat four Grand Slam winners in the same tournament since 1999, when 17 year old Serena Williams accomplished the feat in the U.S. Open.
After winning the National Bank Tournament, Mboko moved to No. 24 in the world rankings, which is an improvement of 61 spots. She will next compete in the U.S. Open next month as a seeded player for the first time in her professional career.