The 19-year-old tennis sensation made her first appearance in the Top 10 rankings and her second WTA 1000 final with a dominate 6-3, 6-2 win over Jelena Ostapenko at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open.
It has been a meteoric rise for Victoria Mboko. Just this time last year, she was ranked 211th and running for her fourth ITF title at the Manchester W35 in England. At this time, she had only played one WTA main draw match and had yet to take a victory at this level.
Fast forward 12 months, and the landscape is vastly different. Victoria Mboko now has two WTA titles to her name – those won in Montreal and Hong Kong last year – and has already reached two finals this season, including a runner-up finish to Mirra Andreeva in Adelaide.
No matter what happens against Karolina Muchova in the final to come, she is expected to be No. 9 with a win or No. 10 with a loss.
This accomplishment makes her only the fourth Canadian woman to make the Top 10 with the likes of Carling Bassett-Seguso, Eugenie Bouchard and Bianca Andreescu.
“It’s quite crazy,” Mboko admitted after the match. “I never expected something to happen so fast for me.” I have just been taking it day by day, tournament by tournament. It’s not like when I go into a tournament, I’m going to say I’m going to win it, but you always want to try your best.”
As unstoppable as her movement is, Mboko is grounded. “I don’t really have goals for myself,” she explained. “I just like to surprise myself along the way . . .” As long as I’m having fun doing what I love, it’s going to pay off at the end of the day.”
Her incredible adaptability drives Victoria Mboko’s meteoric rise. In her recent contests, she has been able to counter a wide range of playing styles. She took Mira Andreeva’s spin and angles in her stride and in her creativity.
She withstood the hard serve of Australian Open 2026 champion. Elena Rybakina with a staunch execution of her own.
Against Ostapenko, the challenge was weathering the storm of the aggressive Latvian winners. Mboko played her game plan to perfection, holding back Ostapenko’s early dominance and a late rally attempt from 5-0 down.
Mboko used the deep strikes to jam Ostapenko at the baseline and used drop shots not to play it safe and keep her opponent off balance.
“She was playing really great tennis at the beginning, so I was like, yeah, I had to step it up,” Mboko pointed out.
The stats tell her story of hard work: Mboko ended up with an even 15 winners (including six aces) and 15 unforced errors. In comparison, Ostapenko’s 22 winners were swamped by 27 unforced errors.
Saurabh is a passionate tennis content writer and lifelong fan of the game. Whether it’s Grand Slam showdowns or under-the-radar rising stars, Saurabh brings the court to life with sharp analysis, breaking news, and deep-dive features. When they aren’t covering matches, you can find them practicing their topspin forehand or debating who is the GOAT over coffee. Do you enjoy tennis? Then you are in the right place.
