Victoria Mboko beats Naomi Osaka in Canadian Open final to win first WTA Tour title

Victoria Mboko’s run through one of the most important competitions in women’s tennis ended where it inevitably — and impossibly — seemed like it might all along.

And what a place she chose to do it. On Thursday night in Montreal, in the Canadian Open final, Mboko staged another comeback to rise out of a one-set hole and shake off a balky wrist that always seemed on the edge of breaking down. The 18-year-old hometown hero stormed past former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in front of more than 11,000 delirious fans, claiming her first WTA Tour title with her fourth win over a Grand Slam champion in seven matches.

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While Mboko’s rise at first appears a Cinderella story, it is anything but. Like Loïs Boisson, who reached the semifinals of this year’s French Open, Mboko has spent the year winning relentlessly on the third and second tiers of women’s tennis. She has won 51 matches in 2025, losing nine. Still, she was ranked in the 350s at the end of last year. Now she is world No. 25

In a near-repeat of her semifinal win over Elena Rybakina 24 hours before, Mboko got bullied through the first set. She might very well have been in for a very short night, but then, on the strength of a frightening backhand and a set of preternaturally steely nerves, Mboko steadied herself, revved up the power and stayed out of the way as Osaka crumbled amid the noise and the pressure of being so close to her first title in 4 1/2 years.

There was a time not so long ago when Osaka would do to others what Mboko did to her Thursday night. She would play fearless, powerful tennis, unbothered by lost points or games or sets. Instead, at 2-1 to Mboko in the third set, in what became most important game of the night, Osaka nearly succumbed to tears as Mboko saved four break points and solidified the service break that gave her a lead she would not relinquish.

Osaka, who said afterward that the emotion caused her to forget to congratulate Mboko during her runner-up speech, has made strides at this event. Her footwork has looked sharper and cleaner than it did during her partnership with Patrick Mouratoglou. She snapped a streak of tight three-set defeats, saving two match points to beat Liudmila Samsonova in the second round. But when it came to the final, her frustration at the close-but-far outcomes that have largely defined her return to tennis reemerged.

“This morning I was very grateful. I don’t know why my emotions flipped so quickly, but I’m really happy to have played the final,” Osaka said afterward.

Mboko has played so much tennis this season for one reason — because she wins and wins and wins some more. She’s just doing it on ever-bigger stages. In addition to Osaka and Rybakina, she beat world No. 2 Coco Gauff and 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin on the way to the title.

“It’s that belief in yourself that the very top of the one percent have,” Gracia Mboko, Victoria’s older sister, who is a consultant in private equity, said earlier this year in Paris after her first win at a Grand Slam. “It’s, ‘not only should I win this match, I’m going to go do it.’ And then she does it.”

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And did she ever Thursday, especially as Osaka tried to claw her way back into the match. But then Mboko, who had used her power to send Osaka skittering across the baseline and backpedaling all evening, feathered a soft drop shot into the open space at the front of the court.

She was on her way.

It ended when Osaka smacked a backhand into the net. Mboko sunk to her knees. She covered her eyes in disbelief and walked to the net with the brightest of smiles to shake Osaka’s hand.

Gauff said Mboko, who needed a wild card to get into the tournament, was playing some of the best tennis in the world, and it was only a matter of time before her ranking and the wins reflected it. It turned out to be just a matter of days.

“I want to thank every single one of you who came out to support me all week,” Mboko told the still delirious crowd during the trophy ceremony. “You guys were incredible.”

So was she.

(Photo: David Kirouac / Imagn Images)

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