Canada’s latest tennis phenom is just 18 years old and needed a wild card from organizers just to enter the National Bank Open in Montreal. But Victoria Mboko has already made a name for herself, and her country, with her victories on the court.
Mboko was
, in 2006. Her parents, Cyprien Mboko and Godee Kitadi, left the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1999 over political turmoil and then moved to Toronto when Moko was still a young child. All her grandparents still live in in the DRC, and she hopes to go back soon to see them.
She is the youngest of four siblings, all of whom play tennis. Her sister, Gracia, and oldest brother Kevin both competed at college level. Her other brother, David, had to stop due to eye problems.
“I just remember watching them from the sidelines and not wanting to be left out,” Mboko told the Women’s Tennis Association in a recent interview. Perhaps not surprisingly, she first picked up a racket at the age of three.
Now that she’s now gone further in the game than her siblings, the tables have turned and they’re the ones cheering her on. Still, some things in families never change.
“I’ve actually never beaten any of them,” she said. “I never like to lose a lot. I played my sister once in a tournament and I lost 0 and 0. I was absolutely devastated. They still hold that over me to this day!”
Something else with a hold on her is her mom’s Congolese cuisine, and especially dessert.
“Beignets are these little balls made out of dough — it’s a French translation of doughnut — and I could eat so many of them,” she said. “For an athlete, they’re not great to eat. But when I come home she always makes a bunch of them, because she never gets to see me.”
Mboko also speaks French, which helped her in the press conferences at the National Bank Open, where journalists asked questions in both official languages.
“It’s been a crazy night for me,” she said at
, following her unexpected win — and her sixth straight victory — over former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the tournament’s semifinals.
“It’s unbelievable to even think about it, and I’m just really happy to be here and just to celebrate it with all the Canadian fans that came to watch,” she added.
Mboko got off to a rocky start as Rybakina took the opening set, but the young Canadian player told herself: “Stay in there.”
She added: “I just had that kind of mentality in the second set, and it really helped me get through a lot of difficult points.”
It did indeed, as Mboko came back to win the next two sets in front of a delirious, sold-out IGA Stadium crowd, many of whom held signs that read “Allez Vicky!”
It’s a switch for the young player, who grew up watching the Rogers Cup in Toronto as a spectator.
“I remember going there as a kid and watching all the great players playing,” she said. “We were watching a lot of Serena and Venus, and that’s where I took a lot of inspiration, because Serena was literally the greatest of all time. I used to see how the pros are and I used to be in so much awe of them. And now I’m seeing them like right beside me. It’s crazy how life works, it’s such a great feeling.”
She’s a big fan of fellow Canadian Bianca Andreescu, who in 2019 became the first Canadian in 50 years to win the Canadian Open. Mboko could become the next if she beats
of Japan in the final, set for Thursday night. She expects her opponent will put up “a hard battle.”
Andreescu has been very supportive of the younger player. “I’m always rooting for Vicky,” she told the
from Rome this year. “I messaged her and said, ‘Hey, if you want to talk, let me know.’ At the end of the day, we’re the only ones who can relate to each other, so if we can help each other that’s the main thing. But she has a very strong game style, she’s very aggressive and she can play defence.”
Having everyday Canadians cheering her on in Montreal has also been wonderful. “I feel like every day I’ve been saying how I’ve been thanking them for how much they’ve been helping me,” Mboko said. “Playing in front of the home crowd obviously has it its advantages. You know, you always have everyone pumping you up as much as they can … I feel really blessed to have that kind of support.”
Mboko seemingly “came out of nowhere,” spectator Sylvie Quesnel told
. “I didn’t know her, and now she’s in the finals.”
Nancy Gagnon, who has attended the tournament every year for a decade, told the Gazette she had never seen a match like this one: “I couldn’t believe the amount of cheering and clapping.” And Stephan Cromps even compared it with a playoff game by the Montreal Canadiens. “It was stressful. We were on the edge of our seats the whole time.”
— With files from Canadian Press
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