MONTREAL — After her opponent’s final shot hit the net, Victoria Mboko tossed her racket to the court, covered her face with her hands and dropped to her knees.
Against all odds, this was a Canadian sporting moment for the history books. After starting the day in the hospital and simply hoping to get the green light to play through a wrist injury, Mboko completed a stunning, spectacular and unforgettable run to a prestigious title.
Known by only the hardcore members of the Canadian tennis community at the start of 2025, Mboko is now a national sporting hero.
The 18-year-old Toronto product completed her wild run to the National Bank Open presented by Rogers title with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka on Thursday at a sold-out, raucous IGA Stadium.
“Honestly I would tell myself to never stop believing,” Mboko told Sportsnet’s Danielle Michaud on court when asked what she would tell her younger self if she knew this moment was coming.
“When I was younger, these kinds of achievements seemed so far away. I would have never known it would come so close. To do something like this and to tell my younger self just to keep training, keep believing in yourself. Oh my God, I’m getting so emotional right now.”
After her second comeback victory in as many nights, Mboko became the first Canadian in the Open era (since 1968) to win an NBO singles title in Montreal. She’s just the third Canadian champ overall of the WTA Tour 1000 event in that timespan.
Mboko is also the second-youngest player in the Open era to knock off four Grand Slam champs in one tournament. The youngest? Someone named Serena Williams at age 17 at the 1999 U.S. Open.
She’ll be 25th overall and the top Canadian in the rankings Friday after being outside the top 300 to open 2025 and 85th to start this tournament.
Mboko, who is 53-9 on the year, earns $752,275 for the win in just her seventh career WTA Tour main draw. She had $458,001 in earnings for her career before this.
Suddenly, Mboko is a star. Prime Minister Mark Carney congratulated her on X, and the CN Tower lit up red and white to celebrate the victory. Hilariously, the crowd at the NBO men’s final in Toronto erupted in the middle of a game while watching the women’s final on their phones, confusing Ben Shelton and Karen Khachanov. (“I guess the Canadian player won in Montreal,” the umpire explained to Shelton)
“I think when I had that winning moment and seeing so many people standing up and cheering for me, it was kind of a surreal experience,” Mboko said. “I would have never thought something like this would have come so suddenly. So I’m super happy for that and I think it just proves that your dreams are closer than they (seem).”
Mboko accomplished the feat while battling a wrist injury suffered less than 24 hours earlier in a dramatic win over Elena Rybakina. She was playing with her right wrist taped up after she suffered an injury while falling early in the third set of a match that ended with a tiebreak.
Michaud reported before the final that Mboko remained at the tournament site until the wee hours of the morning to get treatment. She then woke up with her wrist in pain and swollen. Mboko opted to go for an MRI and X-ray, which showed no structural damage, clearing her to play.
But late in the second set, the wrist appeared to be causing her trouble. She double-faulted three times while serving for the set and shook her wrist several times, leading to an easy break.
Osaka appeared ready to pounce as Mboko’s service speed went way down in her next game with the ball in her hands. But Osaka let her off the hook with some wobbly shots, allowing Mboko to tie things up.
“There were some moments where it was aggravating me a lot,” said Mboko, who plans to drop out of the Cincinnati Open this week to give her wrist more time to heal before the U.S. Open.
“But I feel like it was the final, and I just kept saying to myself, ‘You have one more to go,’ and I had the extra motivation from the crowd to keep pushing. I tried to block it out of my head as much as possible.”
Just like Wednesday versus Rybakina, the script flipped after a rough first set for Mboko.
Osaka, so poised and relaxed throughout her own breakthrough run here, seemed to completely lose her command following the opener. She didn’t allow one break-point opportunity in the first set, but Mboko broke her an astounding eight times in the final two sets.
As the momentum shifted, the partisan crowd only got louder.
The noise meter went off the charts in the final game with Osaka leading 40-15. After a reaching shot by Mboko from the back of the court just got over the net, Osaka moved up and casually tapped it back over.
With Osaka standing at the net and thinking she had the game won, Mboko had other ideas. She raced forward, slid, lunged and got it back over the net while tumbling onto the court in doubles territory. Osaka was in disbelief. The umpire said a review was needed to see if the ball bounced twice — it did not.
The umpire might as well have said ‘Game, Set, Match’ right there. Mboko would not lose another point.
“In that game, I was like ‘I’m super close,’” Mboko said. “At that point, I had the fighting mentality. I just 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. In that situation, I just wanted to stay in there with her … I wanted to run and retrieve everything that even didn’t seem possible.”
This whole story, of course, didn’t seem possible two weeks ago. How fun it will be to see where it goes from here.
But that’s a question for another day. We witnessed something special on Thursday.
“It’s been an incredible week here in Montreal,” Mboko told the crowd on court. “Montreal, je vous aime!”
— With files from The Canadian Press
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