18yo Mboko takes down 4 Slam champs to win Montreal title

Eighteen-year-old wildcard Victoria Mboko completed a sensational run at the Omnium Banque Nationale in Montreal, defeating four Grand Slam champions this fortnight, including a 2-6 6-4 6-1 comeback win over former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka in the final to claim her first WTA title.

The final didn’t start in Mboko’s favor. The teenager was shaky early, surrendering the first set 2-6 to a sharp Osaka, who was competing in her first WTA 1000 final since 2022. But as she has done all tournament long, Mboko dug deep. Despite nursing a wrist injury that required a hospital visit on the day of the match, she turned the tide in front of a packed and partisan Canadian crowd.

Playing through a swollen, stiff wrist and heavily bandaged, Mboko committed 13 double faults and saw a noticeable drop in the speed of her first serve. Yet, she broke Osaka’s serve eight times as she managed to convert eight of nine break point opportunities in a match filled with 14 total service breaks.

When Osaka’s final shot found the net, Mboko dropped to her knees in disbelief, overwhelmed by the moment. She then leapt up to embrace her family and coaching team, who were cheering from the stands.

Born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2006, to Congolese parents, Mboko was raised in Toronto, where she first picked up a tennis racquet at the age of three. She played her first ITF tournament at W15 Prokuplje (Serbia) in 2021 as a 14-year-old. Her 2025 season opened with a 22-match winning streak on the ITF Tour and now she’s raced all the way to the WTA 1000 title, becoming only the third wildcard ever to win a tournament of this level, following in the footsteps of Maria Sharapova (Cincinnati 2011) and Andreescu (Indian Wells 2019).

Mboko’s Montreal title run included victories over four Grand Slam champions, who have won eight major titles between them: Coco Gauff, Sofia Kenin, Elena Rybakina, and Osaka. Ranked 85th coming into the tournament, Mboko is projected to soar to a career-high of No. 24 in next week’s WTA rankings. She began the season outside the Top 300.

Osaka, a mother to daughter Shai, made a strong start but couldn’t maintain momentum. This was her most promising run since returning from a 15-month maternity break, but frustration was evident by the end of the match. She opted not to congratulate Mboko on court.