Victoria Mboko's meteoric tennis rise is continuing at the Australian Open, where she downed Clara Tauson to advance to the fourth round on Thursday.Aaron Favila/The Associated Press
Canadian tennis star Victoria Mboko is continuing her meteoric rise with a thrilling debut at the Australian Open.
After three captivating wins, the teen is into her first Grand Slam round-of-16 and will face two-time champion and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday in Melbourne. She and doubles partner Iva Jovic of the U.S. are also into the second round of women’s doubles.
Mboko captivated tennis – and this country – when she defeated Naomi Osaka to win the National Bank Open women’s singles title in August. The 18-year-old went from wildcard to household name as she beat four Grand Slam champions in a stunning run in Montreal. She was Canada’s first tournament champion since Bianca Andreescu ended this country’s 50-year drought in 2019.
In her meteoric rise, Canada’s Victoria Mboko is playing beyond her years
That performance earned Mboko her first Grand Slam main-draw spot in the U.S. Open in September, where she fell in the first round. Mboko followed up by winning a second title in Hong Kong in November and reaching the final of the Adelaide International earlier this month.
Now the highest-ranked Canadian woman in tennis, Mboko secured a spot in the Australian Open’s main draw for the first time. Here’s everything you need to know about Mboko as she aims for her first Grand Slam title.
Who is Victoria Mboko?
Victoria Mboko beat four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka to win the National Bank Open in Montreal in August, 2025.
The Canadian Press
Victoria “Vicky” Mboko was born in Charlotte, N.C., to parents who fled political turmoil in the Democratic Republic of Congo. When she was two months old, the family moved to Toronto and then Burlington, Ont., where Mboko and her three older siblings – who all played tennis as well – grew up watching the sport at Sobeys Stadium.
The 19-year-old began playing tennis at age 4 and started competing early. Mboko says that her father, an engineer, used to drive her around to events and practices, working night shifts so he would be free to help her during the day. “My mom and dad always told me that, ‘You can do it, you can play at any level,’” she told The Globe after winning a doubles match on Tuesday.
Opinion: For my father, Victoria Mboko's victory is a decade-long tennis dream come true
In 2022, agents came calling as she rose to prominence in juniors and made two Grand Slam junior doubles finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
Mboko blossomed on the pro circuit last season, and sped through the lower rungs that take most young players years. In early 2025, she won four ITF titles, securing 22 consecutive match victories without dropping a set, before she made her WTA-1000 singles main draw debut at the Miami Open in March. Mboko also made the third round at the French Open and won a match at Wimbledon in 2025.
Who are Victoria Mboko’s coaches?
After training much of 2024 at the Justine Henin Academy in Belgium, Mboko wanted to return home, and has been coached by Nathalie Tauziat and Noëlle van Lottum in Montreal and Toronto since November, 2024. Tauziat is a French former player who reached No. 3 in both singles and doubles play, and also formerly coached Andreescu. A Dutch-French former player and coach, van Lottum has been working as the head women’s national coach for Tennis Canada in Montreal since 2023.
What is Mboko’s WTA ranking?
Mboko kisses the National Bank Open trophy on Aug. 7.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Mboko’s ranking has soared in the past year or so, from 350th in the world in November, 2024, to No. 16. She is now the highest-ranked Canadian woman, ahead of No. 23 Leylah Fernandez who went out in the first round in Melbourne.
Mboko’s ascent “is incredibly fast, and that doesn’t happen very often,” van Lottum told The Globe this week.
Her victory in Montreal also made her the youngest player in the Open Era to defeat four Grand Slam champions in a single tournament – Osaka, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff and Sofia Kenin – since 17-year-old Serena Williams did it at the 1999 U.S. Open.
Victoria Mboko tries to stay grounded as her career takes off
But Mboko said she doesn’t want to overthink her recent successes or let the rising expectations get to her. She said this week she has learned that “tricking your mind to being more confident with yourself can really go a long way – just putting trust in yourself; you know, you’re here for a reason.”
When does Mboko play Sabalenka at the Australian Open?
Saturday's round-of-16 match between Mboko and Sabalenka will be the players' first meeting.Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
The rising Canadian star will face the world’s top-ranked player Sunday morning in Melbourne, which means it’ll be a primetime game for fans in Canada.
Mboko and Sabalenka’s match will start at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Mboko and women’s doubles partner Iva Jovic also face Elise Mertens and Shuai Zhang later on Saturday around 11:40 p.m. ET (Sunday Melbourne time) for their second-round match.
Sabalenka, Mboko to play in meeting of experience and youth at Australian Open
No. 1 Sabalenka edged Anastasia Potapova 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) and 19-year-old Mboko ousted 14th-seeded Clara Tauson 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 to advance to the round-of-16.
Sabalenka, who has won the Australian Open twice and reached the final here last year, called Mboko a “really good player” and lauded her maturity and success at such a young age. “She’s a fighter. She’s playing really good, aggressive tennis,” the Belarusian told reporters on Friday.
Mboko acknowledged her first Grand Slam round-of-16 match will be a challenge, both on and off the court.
“I think it’s super cool. I’ve never played a current No. 1 in the world. That’s going to be a very different experience,” she said. “I’ve never played on a Grand Slam centre court either. A lot of firsts.”
What makes Mboko such a good tennis player?
Mboko has been praised for her power, as well as her maturity and mental strength.Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
Mboko’s commanding and powerful play, strength and ball-striking began drawing attention several years ago, but the teen’s resilience and maturity at such a young age have also set her apart.
“What makes [Mboko] special is obviously the power that she can generate from the serve and from the baseline. I believe she has an exceptional backhand, like way above normal,” Guillaume Marx, Tennis Canada’s vice-president of high performance, told The Globe last summer, “and then she has the mentality, the belief.”
In Montreal, Mboko was lauded for her mental toughness, as she beat players with more experience, rebounded after losing the first set of matches, fought back in games that looked lost and battled through pain in her wrist.
“In terms of the champions that we see in tennis and in any sport, it always feels like there’s something special about them, and it needs to be in you. And I think she has that in her, and ... we can see that right now, just by how composed she is,” said tournament director Valerie Tétreault.
According to Mboko, she gets it from her “very calm” father. “He’s a very relaxed person, so yeah, I think I take from him a little bit,” she said in August.
With reports from Rachel Brady, Marcus Gee, The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the first match at Margaret Court Arena will start at 3 a.m. ET. It started at 7:30 p.m. ET.