Sensational teen Victoria Mboko triumphs in Montreal

Driven by an enthusiastic crowd, Victoria Mboko achieved the feat of winning her first tournament on the WTA Tour after defeating four Grand Slam winners. In the final, she beat former world number one Naomi Osaka 2:6, 6:4, 6:1 in just over two hours. Two years after the birth of her daughter Shai, the Japanese player missed out on her first title as a mother.

"Merci Montréal je vous aime", shouted the new Canadian tennis jewel in French at the end of an English award ceremony in the audience. Mboko turns 19 at the end of the month and her success in Montreal sees her rise from 85th to 25th in the WTA rankings.

At the end of 2024, the teenager was still ranked 350th in the world, but she experienced an outstanding tennis year in 2025 - with four more tournament wins on the ITF Tour and reaching the 3rd round at the French Open.

Osaka slumps after a good start

In Montreal, she also eliminated the top-seeded world number 2 Coco Gauff (in the round of 16). In Thursday's final, however, the fairytale seemed to end prematurely: Mboko hardly got into the match at first and made a lot of mistakes. Osaka clearly dominated the first set.

However, the Japanese player seemed increasingly irritated by the vociferous crowd, who demonstratively applauded her mistakes - and she completely lost the plot. The second set was chaotic: Osaka seemed listless, played without conviction and rushed through her service games.

Mboko was initially unable to take full advantage of this. She made a total of 13 double faults. But when she found her rhythm again, she dominated the deciding set and also benefited from Osaka's many mistakes.

Emotional Osaka

Naomi Osaka has not won a tournament since winning the Australian Open in January 2021 - her fourth Grand Slam triumph (Australian Open 2019, US Open 2018 and 2020). Despite a good tournament in Canada, she appeared emotionally overwhelmed on Thursday. She had spoken openly about mental health problems in the past.

"Thank you, I guess (...) I hope you had a nice evening," Osaka said bitingly to the audience in a short statement, without saying a word to her opponent and with tears in her eyes.

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